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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24953245">The Hunter's Ascension</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeniablyAries/pseuds/UndeniablyAries'>UndeniablyAries</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Hunter &amp; His Ekon [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Vampyr (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>After Game, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Developing Friendships, Drama &amp; Romance, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love, Fights, Gay Male Character, M/M, New Problems, References to Vampyr (Video Game), Skal epidemic returns, dialogue divergence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:20:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>23,326</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24953245</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeniablyAries/pseuds/UndeniablyAries</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the continuation to my previous story, The Hunter's Descent. Now that we have a solid relationship between the hunter and his Ekon, it's time to mix in some new twists and challenges. About two years have passed since the events of the previous story for Geoffrey McCullum, and he had believed that the skal epidemic was under control since the defeat of the Disaster and that bloody queen. He was sorely wrong, though. </p><p>Again, I suck at summaries. But hey, reading to find out is the fun part. I don't like spoiling anything. I own nothing from Vampyr, just a nerdy fan of the game showing some appreciation for it. Thanks for reading. ~Aries</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Geoffrey McCullum/Jonathan Reid, OC/OC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Hunter &amp; His Ekon [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805983</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Vampires were still vampires</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The shrieking from within the city can be heard from the moment the sun sinks below the horizon. London was ill again—the pestilence spilling over from the influenza epidemic serving to mute the growing population of the sickly skal that roamed about the city. To some, this was just more of the same, or “a second wind” from the first part of the epidemic that happened years ago. This was the reason that bodies piled up within London as if the very streets had become a mausoleum. To those that knew the true cause behind all this death and decay, the setting of the sun had become the warning to retreat indoors until sunrise.</p><p>For Geoffrey McCullum, the fearless leader of the Guard of Priwen, this signaled the time to hunt. Lives were at stake, otherwise.</p><p>McCullum stood near the sturdy gates that led down into the sewers beneath the city with a small group of guards around him. He sported his favorite coat and had his crossbow strapped to his arm carefully. He checked meticulously to ensure that it was working properly and loaded before he was to step foot within the sewers.</p><p>“Listen up,” McCullum lowly began. “We go in together. Keep it quiet and keep it clean. Shoot any leech you see that isn’t Reid. We’ll likely run into him down here tonight. He knows that most of these beasts come from here and he’ll be playing the role of good Samaritan by trying to clear them out.”</p><p>Given the recent rise in skal activity, McCullum had begun to suspect that majority of these wretched bloodsuckers would be found in the sewers, as they were during the previous skal epidemic—or so Dr. Jonathan Reid had told him.</p><p><em>Still could find bloody sewer beasts down here, too,</em> McCullum thought, gritting his teeth as he yanked open the gate and filed in after the other guards. <em>Wonder when the good doctor is going to show.</em></p><p>Reid. Dr. Jonathan Reid.</p><p>Ekon of the strongest bloodline and wickedly powerful in his own right.</p><p>Healer extraordinaire and uncharacteristically controlled in the fact that he remained a surgeon even after being turned.</p><p>Also, the object of every strong desire that Geoffrey McCullum has ever had.</p><p>After saving London from the Disaster and sparing Geoffrey’s life when he had initially first pursued Reid with the purpose of slaughtering him, McCullum found himself unable to think of much else that did not involve the man with black hair and brilliant blue eyes. Time after time, Jonathan had shown McCullum mercy and kindness, and the two grew closer with each encounter. Time and time again, Jonathan put himself purposefully in harm’s way to protect Geoffrey and his men down in the sewers or outside the docks. The Ekon doctor spent countless hours patching up McCullum’s men and even more fussing over McCullum’s own injuries and scolding him about being so careless in battle.</p><p>Despite his initial strict vows to exterminate all vampires, McCullum fell quickly for the good doctor. He kept it a secret from the rest of the Guard when they began seeing each other a few years ago, knowing full well that most of his Priwen lads would be unsupportive of such a relationship, regardless of knowing that Dr. Reid actively avoids harming innocents and never feeds from humans.</p><p>Vampires were still vampires.</p><p>“Sir,” Geoffrey’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the low voice of one of the newer recruits who had been taking point. “There’s movement ahead in one of the tunnels.”</p><p>“Keep it quiet, fast, and no mercy,” McCullum hissed, raising his crossbow, silently creeping ahead.</p><p>A pained screech sounded, making every guard, including the seasoned McCullum, jump in surprise. Before any of them could move closer to the commotion, a baritone voice shouted immediately after it.</p><p>“Hey! Come back, I only wish to talk—”</p><p>McCullum recognized that voice immediately, even as it suddenly broke off into an anguished cry.</p><p>
  <em>Reid.</em>
</p><p>“Move!” McCullum growled at one of the new recruits who stood in the way at the front of the group. He pushed past the younger man and raced ahead, boots loudly thumping against the filthy, damp ground.</p><p><em>Please be okay, Reid,</em> he frantically thought as he hurried towards the sound of his lover’s scream.<em> Fuck, please be okay.</em></p><p>Upon ducking into the tunnel from where the commotion had come from, McCullum sucked in a sharp breath at the sight before him.</p><p>Dr. Reid was on the ground, covered in filth and blood. His clothes were absolutely tattered, shredded the most in the arms and he was clutching as his left arm that bled profusely and soaked his fine white shirt thoroughly.</p><p>“Reid,” McCullum called, hustling over to where the doctor sat. He bent and immediately attempted to grab the Ekon’s arm to assess how deep the wound went. “What the fuck happened in here?”</p><p>“My clothes were ruined from a sewer beast,” Dr. Reid explained through clenched teeth as he placed pressure on his arm with his free hand. “This was given to me from another Ekon. I was tracking the sewer beast through the tunnels; the beast went this way and ran into the other Ekon. The Ekon dispatched of it with unbelievable speed because I was not even a full minute behind the creature when it came in here and it was dead when I entered. I must have startled the other Ekon, because when I ran into this tunnel, he jumped and attacked me.”</p><p>“Claws?” Geoffrey guessed, still cradling Reid’s wounded arm. The doctor shook his head.</p><p>“He was bent over the sewer beast when I entered the room,” Jonathan told him. “He ripped one of the larger fangs from the beast’s mouth and launched it at me before I could even react. It cut my arm as I was raising it to say I meant him no harm. It cut me, and then he ran over there, where he bent the bars on that locked gate and fled through it.”</p><p>“What?” McCullum incredulously demanded. He got up and went towards the exit gate that Jonathan had pointed out to investigate further.</p><p>The gate had been battered once, the handle destroyed as it had been checked first and likely found to be locked. The bars in the center were displaced by sheer force, bent out of way just enough for a moderate-sized body to maneuver through.</p><p>“Damn,” the hunter breathed, unable to believe that there was something strong enough to do this. He hurried back over to help Dr. Reid up before asking him if he got a look at the Ekon that attacked him.</p><p>“He was shorter than you or me, but incredibly muscular. He had dark red hair that was cropped short on the sides and longer on top of his head,” Reid detailed. “I believe he was wearing shorts, strangely enough, but it was covered up by some sort of crimson robe. That’s all I could see on him.”</p><p>“That’s perfect, Jonathan,” McCullum told him. “We’ll keep an eye out for him around the city. For now, let’s get you home. I’ll walk you.”</p><p>He turned and ordered the rest of the guards in the room to head back to headquarters and clear out any remaining skals that they come across on the way back.</p><p>The cool night air hit the pair of them as they exited through the gate that the sewer Ekon had destroyed.</p><p>“Sorry,” McCullum whispered to the vampire that he supported as they walked. “I should have gotten there sooner.”</p><p>Dr. Reid flashed a calming smile at him.</p><p>“Do not worry about it, dear hunter,” Jonathan responded, straightening out his coat and leaning closer into Geoffrey. “All is well. Honestly, I do not suspect hostility from that Ekon I found. I believe I just startled him. I have never seen him around before. He could be new to the area.”</p><p>McCullum grunted in response and continued walking Reid towards the West End.</p><p>“I don’t really care if he’s new in town or not,” he gruffly answered. “He’s a leech, so he’s being investigated and hunted now by me. Especially since he hurt you.”</p><p>Jonathan could not help the smile that played at his lips over the level of concern that Geoffrey McCullum, the leader of the Guard of Priwen, was showing him—an Ekon. The irony of their current situation was almost never lost on Dr. Reid, and he sighed gratefully as the strong hand of the hunter grasped at his. He surrendered and wound his fingers with Geoffrey’s as they headed towards the direction of Reid manor.</p><p>“The skals numbers are growing around here too much,” the hunter suddenly told the vampire, who nodded once in agreement. “Priwen has made the decision to send in more guards here from our chapters that are located outside of England.”</p><p>The Ekon raised an eyebrow at this.</p><p>“What of London?” He asked, and Geoffrey grimaced.</p><p>“They are sending in some of the French Guard,” the hunter bitterly answered. “Some young bastard who became a captain too soon is now going to be in my office during the working hours of the night with me.”</p><p>“Well, it’ll be an experience for sure,” the vampire offered.</p><p>“I don't know how I’m supposed to convince all these new hunters here that you’re off-limits and not a threat,” McCullum quietly said as they reached the Reid manor. The Ekon smiled weakly and put a hand on the hunter’s shoulder. "If anything hurt you, I-I don't know what I'd do." </p><p>“Don’t you worry about me, my hunter,” Dr. Reid lowly told him and gently pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Spend the night with me?”</p><p>“You don’t have to ask twice,” McCullum answered, holding the door open for his dearly beloved as they both slipped inside.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The New Guard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>"That'll become a problem if it becomes a problem," is my lazy life motto, and Geoffrey is really feeling it this chapter. The new Guards from Paris have arrived and it's time to get cozy with the London Guard. How will they mesh together? Will they leave the good doctor alone and believe that he's truly not a threat? Will the new captain be all up in Geoffrey's business all the time? Or maybe, for once, things will go swimmingly for the hunter.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>Damnit,</em> Geoffrey thought. <em>Tonight’s the night.</em></p><p>Tonight, just so happened to be the night that he would be gaining an unwanted officemate.</p><p>Arno Beaumont, twenty-six-year-old captain of the French branch of the Guard of Priwen. He was supposed to be some sort of vampire-hunting prodigy. Taken in by the Paris Guard at the age of fourteen, where he immediately took to the sword and killed his first skal within the month. He had killed a decent number of Ekons by the age of fifteen, and by sixteen, he had taken down three sewer beasts on his own. Priwen believed that if anyone was going to help London, it was going to be Arno Beaumont and the Guard that was under his direct command. He was to be moving in to Priwen headquarters in London tonight, along with about thirty other men.</p><p><em>We don’t need help,</em> Geoffrey maliciously though. <em>Not yet, anyway. Especially not from some young-blood, know-it-all who is just going to get in my way. Or possibly target Reid.</em></p><p>“Maybe you should make a warning poster for your office,” his Ekon had joked before he came in to work tonight. “You know, with my face on it and a caption saying that I’m wanted alive and only to be killed by you? Spin a tale that I have done you wrong and you are the one who must avenge something by killing me, so nobody else can.”</p><p><em>Like that will matter to some out-of-towner,</em> McCullum thought, rolling his eyes again at the ridiculous idea. <em>Beaumont is a trained killer of vampires. He sniffs them out and ends them, as a good hunter should. He certainly won’t care for some childish vendetta that he’ll likely realize is a farce anyway.</em></p><p>In truth, Geoffrey had no real idea what to expect from the hunter that was supposed to be his equal or better. The notion of it just irritated him to no end. He was not one for sharing his space and he was the one who gave the orders, not sat idly by at a desk and debated them with someone else thoroughly before giving them. It was now an added step to the process that he was not interested in dealing with at this moment in time.</p><p>There was a sudden knock at his office door and the voice of his second-in-command, O’Connor, called through it.</p><p>“McCullum, you in there? The Paris Priwen are here.”</p><p>Geoffrey grumbled softly to himself and got up from his desk to cross the room. He pulled the door open to meet the familiar face of O’Connor beside an unfamiliar one.</p><p>“Geoffrey, this is Arno Beaumont,” O’Connor explained. “Captain of the Paris Guard.”</p><p>The man before him held out a dark hand and McCullum shook it cordially. This man was unusually tall, almost as tall as Geoffrey, and he had sun-tanned skin and murky brown eyes. His hair fell in black, curls all over the top of his head in a mess and he stood squared up to McCullum proudly. He wore a similar outfit to Geoffrey, in truth—dark, slightly-worn trousers with a plain shirt and layers of a gray sweater and overcoat, with some heavy boots. He had some fantastic silvery sword strapped to his side—a lefty, it seemed—and he carried a small duffle bag that was slung over his shoulder.</p><p>“Well, come on in,” McCullum drawled, swinging the door open wider and standing aside. The new hunter stepped forth and entered the office, as O’Connor gave a pleasant nod and headed back downstairs to assist the new Guards from Paris with settling into open bunks and rooms. They had opened up the basement and cleared out a lot of storage space to line it with cots and beds in order to meet the demand for all the new bodies that would be here working each day and night.</p><p>“You are Geoffrey McCullum, I take it?” The new hunter suddenly said, accent a bit thicker than McCullum had expected. He spoke back with his own harsher one now.</p><p>“That would be me, Captain,” McCullum responded, that similar title thick on his tongue.</p><p>“Please, just Arno is fine,” the younger man replied. “I know this isn’t ideal for you and I don’t mean to impose.”</p><p><em>Oh?</em> Geoffrey felt surprised. <em>You also understand that this is shite?</em></p><p>“I will not be staying here all the time,” Arno continued. “I will report in when our shift starts and be here with you until around 0300 or 0400, then I take to the streets to hunt, either alone or with a group of my men, and I won’t return until shift begins the following night. I have a loft outside of Whitechapel that I will be staying in during the day and moving my things into, so that I do not have to impede upon your space here.”</p><p><em>He rented a place to stay in town?</em> Geoffrey realized, <em>The hell? How much are they paying these bastards over in France? Maybe I should consider relocating once this is all done and over with. Make some real money…</em></p><p>“Whatever,” McCullum gruffly responded. “However, you operate is fine by me. I have my ways, and I’m sure you have yours. I won’t get in your way, so long as you stay out of mine.”</p><p>The Frenchman nodded once in agreement.</p><p>“I am only here to kill vampires,” he agreed. “Not undermine your leadership of the London Guard. It was doing fine before this, and it shall continue to be fine after this.”</p><p><em>Least the kid has some common sense, even if it does come across as boot-licking,</em> Geoffrey thought, slightly pleased by this fortunate misjudgment of character that he had initially assumed. <em>Perhaps he won’t get on my nerves every second that we spend together. Jonathan will be interested to hear about this.</em></p><p>“Before we continue though,” McCullum quickly began. He had to try, at least. “I have one request of you and your men, to extension.”</p><p>“I’m listening,” Arno replied, allowing for the seasoned hunter to continue.</p><p>“There is an Ekon that roams around this city who is unlike any other leech out there,” Geoffrey told. When the Frenchman’s face remained neutral, he continued. “This Ekon goes by Dr. Jonathan Reid. He is a surgeon, perhaps one of the most brilliant ones in the country. Despite being turned a few years ago, he continued working as a doctor at our local hospital, the Pembroke. Thus far, he has given us no reason to believe he is a danger to humans. He has assisted the Guard here on several occasions, and he is responsible for stopping the Disaster that plagued London before and brought about the previous skal epidemic. He has a vow not to harm innocents or feed on humans, and I am tasked with overseeing this Ekon and making sure that he doesn’t step out of line. If he does, I am the one who will end him. He is considered off-limits to all hunters in the city.”</p><p>Arno remained silent for a moment, appearing deeply calculating as he took in everything that Geoffrey had just told him. He grimaced a bit and then sighed, finally speaking his thoughts.</p><p>“I understand,” he finally said, and Geoffrey wanted to leap in excitement. “Dr. Jonathan Reid is off-limits to all hunters except for you. I shall spread the word to my men. If you could somehow point him out or have him stop by sometime so that my men and I can see who we are not to chase after, that would be appreciated. So long as it’s just this one Ekon, I don’t see the problem.”</p><p><em>Guess I should mention Hampton,</em> McCullum realized, but then thought further. <em>Or I could just make sure that my men patrol the docks and his take the streets around Whitechapel and the West End. They don’t need to know that we have a few pet leeches that we keep around while they are behaving. That surely won’t go over well with the Priwen officials that I’m sure he’s reporting back to. That can become a problem if it becomes a problem…</em></p><p>“The lads will be bringing up a desk to set across from mine sometime soon for you,” McCullum told the new hunter. “In the meantime, feel free to make yourself at home or wander around and familiarize yourself with the headquarters here.”</p><p>Arno nodded, lowering his duffle bag to the floor, and then walking across the room to exit it.</p><p><em>This might work,</em> Geoffrey softly exhaled the sigh that he did not even realize he was holding in. <em>Perhaps this won’t be so bad, after all. So long as they don’t touch Jonathan and only kill the bad bloodsuckers, we will get along swell.</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. An Awful Mess</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Well, the cat's partially out of the bag. Arno discovers a part of Geoffrey's great secret, and reveals an even bigger one of his own. Drama ensues. And oh, Geoffrey. He is your Dr. Reid, don't even deny it.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Weeks had gone by and the Guard had seemed to fall into a rhythm between the hunting, the report-filing, and watching each other’s backs during the day. The Paris Guard seemed to be molding well into the patrols with the London Guard, much to the relief of the two captains. The two captains had also developed their own little routine, and true to his word, Arno was out of McCullum’s office every morning no later than 4 o’clock. He arrived no later than 8 o’clock the following evening, fresh-faced and with a large thermos of coffee that he would slowly drain throughout the night as he and McCullum would pass reports around and talk strategy on taking down the latest threats that seemed to be appearing in the streets. Last week, a sewer beast under the bridge leading to Whitechapel, this week, a pack of ravenous skals appearing from the sewer entry near the Pembroke. They were an efficient team, though McCullum loathed to admit it, for they were able to track and outmaneuver each danger before it could harm any civilians.</p><p>So, here they both were again tonight, talking about their individual hunting plans for the week. Arno had been trailing two vulkods that were showing up and wandering through Temple Park and he had been going on about taking a group of men out sometime this week to flank the vampires and end them. McCullum halfway listened, pouring over his own handwritten notes that he had been scribbling and working over lately. He had his own target that he was desperate for information on.</p><p>“Arno, can I ask you something?” Geoffrey began, getting ready to hand his notes over to the other hunter. “What do you make of this? There’s this new, strange Ekon that appeared in town several weeks ago and he injured someone dear to me, so I can’t seem to forget about him and I want to go track him down soon before he hurts anyone else.”</p><p>Arno nodded, accepting the file that McCullum passed over to him, and he carefully poured over the older hunter’s research. As he read over the description of the Ekon, his eyes widened slightly, and he shook his head.</p><p>“No,” he breathed, drawing McCullum’s immediate attention. “No, that’s impossible. He doesn’t harm humans. He only chases vampires.”</p><p>Before McCullum could respond, the younger hunter suddenly leapt from his seat and crossed the room, still furiously shaking his head.</p><p>“He doesn’t bite humans,” Arno was saying again. “He only feeds from vampires or rats. I swear he does—”</p><p>“Arno, are you alright?” McCullum interrupted the man’s rapid pacing. “The hell’s gotten into you? Do you know this leech? If so, I’m going to need you to tell me his name right now.”</p><p>The tone shifted in the room, and Arno squared up to face the hunter. His eyes were still wild, and he looked visibly shaken the way his lower lip intermittently quivered.</p><p>“I-I don’t know his name,” the younger hunter softly responded. “I know where he’s from—I used to track him back home. He was living in Paris the same time I was. I trailed him for a long time expecting him to slip up, but I realized that he was killing and feeding off other vampires in the area. I cornered him one day, thinking he was hurting a human, but it was just another Ekon. He then told me that he doesn’t feed from humans or hurt them. I have watched him, but he disappeared for a while before I moved here to help your Guard. I have never considered him a threat since that night months ago.”</p><p>“He sounds a lot like Reid,” McCullum murmured, staring the man across the room down, watching his movements curiously. "Funny how the leeches are getting more and more humane as we go along.”</p><p>Arno glanced at him, lips parted in confusion, and he merely shrugged.</p><p>“I think you should leave him be,” he flatly told the older hunter, who scowled at that. “He hasn’t hurt anyone; he is just like your Dr. Reid. I’m keeping an eye on him. If he ever crosses the line, I’ll be the one to deal with him.”</p><p>“He’s not <em>my</em> Dr. Reid,” McCullum immediately shot back, clicking his tongue once in anger before finally sighing and rolling his eyes. “I’m not going to promise you anything, Arno. If he hurts my loved ones again, and I’m there to catch him, then he’s going down. I won’t hesitate. However, I will stop pursuing him in the meantime and focus my energy on the obvious threats.”</p><p>Arno’s shoulders seemed to relax at that, and he breathed a tiny sigh. McCullum still did not understand the intense reaction that the younger hunter had over this Ekon, but he quickly shrugged it off and went back to the pile of reports that were stacked on the other side of his desk.</p><p>“I’m going out to track those vulkods,” the younger hunter suddenly said, and McCullum glanced at the clock, noticing it was about a quarter until 3 o’clock in the morning.</p><p>“Have a good night,” the older hunter grunted, waving carelessly at Arno as he picked up his sword and strapped it to himself before heading out the door.</p><p><em>What a weird kid,</em> Geoffrey thought, shaking his head and going back to his paperwork.</p><p>He went back to pouring over reports for a few minutes, when a sudden tapping on his windowsill snapped him out of his focus and caused him to jump slightly in his chair.</p><p>“Reid,” he hissed. “Goddamnit, you can’t do this anymore. What are you doing here? This place is crawling with old and new vampire hunters. Get in here!”</p><p>The Ekon smiled pleasantly, crawling in through the window as he had done so many times in the past. He knew it was a terrible idea to attempt this tonight, but he really had to tell his hunter something important and this was the only way that he could do it.</p><p>“Apologies, dear hunter,” Dr. Reid murmured, running a hand gently across Geoffrey’s bicep. “I have some news for you that you would be most interested in hearing. It’s about that new Ekon in town, I had an encounter with him just before arriving here.”</p><p>“Did he hurt you?” Geoffrey suddenly demanded, pulling the vampire into his arms, and running hands all over him as if to check him for any wounds. “Are you alright? What happened?”</p><p>“I was leaving the manor and cut through Temple Park, when I heard a lot of screaming,” Jonathan started. “I followed the noise and found a vulkod ripping into some poor, young woman. I went to go stop it, but that other Ekon beat me to it. It was definitely him; he had that same dark, red haircut and he wore not nearly enough clothes and that long robe again. He took the vulkod down faster than anything I’ve ever seen before, latched onto it, and then drained it dry. He left the bleeding human girl alone and then just left. I went and patched up the girl and sent her on her way, then I came here.”</p><p><em>It’s just like Arno said,</em> McCullum pondered. <em>He hunts vampires, despite being one. He only feeds on other vampires, not humans.</em></p><p>“Thanks,” was all he said to the doctor. “You confirmed something for me.”</p><p>“Anytime, dear,” Jonathan responded, and he pressed a kiss gently to the hunter’s face. The hunter caught the vampire up in his arms and pulled him in for a greedy kiss, feeling the need of not being able to put his hands on his lover for so long now. Jonathan felt wonderfully soft and inviting, despite being so unnaturally cold, and Geoffrey could not resist the temptation of running his hands all over the Ekon’s body. The vampire purred, delighted at the feeling of powerful arms around him, and he practically melted into the hunter’s embrace.</p><p>The two were so absorbed in each other that they barely noticed the office door open, until there was a surprised gasp that snapped the pair of them into focus. McCullum roughly shoved the Ekon away from him and turned to face the very startled younger hunter that had come back into the office. Jonathan quickly turned his back on the other hunter in the room—a desperate attempt to conceal his face and too-pale flesh.</p><p>“I, uh, forgot a report with street directions on it,” Arno slowly stated, forcing himself not to look at the older hunter or the doctor. “Forgive me, I’ll be on my way.”</p><p>He turned to exit the room quickly, and McCullum gave Dr. Reid a harsh nod towards the window. The vampire nodded once before quietly slipping through it and disappearing. The older hunter hurried out the door after the younger one.</p><p>“Arno, wait,” McCullum lowly growled, catching the younger captain by the shoulder and turning him sharply in the poorly lit hallway. “I can explain—”</p><p>“No need, sir,” Arno responded. “Really, it’s fine. I should have knocked; I didn’t realize you’d be occupied.”</p><p>“What you saw in there,” Geoffrey softly insisted, but the younger hunter cut him off again.</p><p>“It doesn’t bother me, if that’s where you’re going with this,” Arno responded, confusing the older hunter immensely.</p><p>“What?” McCullum flatly queried.</p><p>“I know what it’s like,” Arno whispered, glancing around to make sure they were alone in the hallway. “I also have someone dear to me who is like that…a man…strong and handsome. It doesn’t bother me. I understand how it feels to have to keep it quiet.”</p><p><em>He doesn’t realize that Reid’s a vampire yet,</em> McCullum realized, heart thumping wildly in his chest. <em>He just thinks I’m into men—like he is, I guess. This is wonderful, and yet, this is awful. When he meets Reid again and I must introduce him as Dr. Reid, the one who is on the off-limits vampire list, he’ll piece that together and then I’m fucked.</em></p><p>
  <em>How the fuck did this happen? Damnit, Reid.</em>
</p><p>McCullum did not genuinely believe that this was all Jonathan’s fault—for he knew that he was just as much responsible for this. He was all over Reid, not the other way around. The good doctor had shown up to talk to him and then be on his way. Had Arno walked in with them just talking, he could have introduced Reid then and told him the information that Reid had given him and they could have all pretended to be on the same side so easily, rather than this mess that had unfolded.</p><p>“Your secret is safe with me, sir,” Arno finally replied. “So long as mine is with you. Good night, sir.”</p><p>He went back up the hall and headed for the stairs, dismissing himself for the night.</p><p><em>Damnit, Reid,</em> he thought again. <em>You owe me. For that, I’m coming over for the rest of the night.</em></p><p>He grumbled as he went and flipped the light off in his office and closed the door for the night before heading downstairs and out the main entrance. He turned and started for the West End, feeling conflicted, but he knew that it was nothing that a night with the good doctor wouldn’t fix.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Unraveled</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>As the newest captain of the Guard continues showing up in places where he doesn't belong, in the company of a certain wild card of an Ekon, Geoffrey begins to wonder what is really going on with his officemate. He also begins to question the truth of the matter in why the Paris Guard had been sent to London. As he grows more confused with the strangeness that is unfolding around him, Jonathan becomes increasingly more interested in this mystery, as well. It's a good thing the doctor is a bit more intuitive than our dear hunter is.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This <em>cannot</em> be legal.”</p>
<p>The good doctor was scowling heavily at the brawny hunter before him, who merely chuckled. Geoffrey was cold—the first crisp winds of the season had cut through him and he desperately pulled his coat closer to him and hoped that he and his partner could find this sketchy place quickly.</p>
<p>“Geoffrey, I don’t like this one bit,” Jonathan tried again, trudging after the stubborn hunter, regardless of his feelings on their current endeavor.</p>
<p>“Then why are you here?” McCullum grilled, making the vampire scowl at him.</p>
<p>“This is madness,” the Ekon responded, as he gazed upon a dilapidated building ahead that bodies were rapidly filing into.</p>
<p>“No, this is how I’m going to make some damn money and take you out someplace nice,” the hunter grunted, moving towards that building and putting a hand on the doctor’s arm to pull him along with him.</p>
<p>“I don’t even eat human food, Geoffrey, this is ridiculous,” Jonathan insisted. “There’s so many people here, this is illegal and it’s surely dangerous here.”</p>
<p>“Fine, I need money, damnit,” McCullum growled.</p>
<p>“I can give you money,” Reid pressed, making the hunter snarl.</p>
<p>“No, I’m not taking from you, that’s not why I’m in a relationship with you.”</p>
<p>Jonathan scowled.</p>
<p>“So, you gamble now?” He questioned the hunter.</p>
<p>“This is honestly the first time I’ve been here, I swear,” the hunter told the Ekon, who frowned even more. “I swear! Some of the lads told me about this place and told me that this Irish bastard never loses, and they make a decent profit off the betting here.”</p>
<p>The doctor glanced around at all the grimy area that they had entered, and he grimaced. The arena was packed full of bodies—<em>lovely for the flu that’s still on the rise,</em> Jonathan could not help but think. There were people screaming, chanting, and even jumping up and down in certain places. The ceiling looked worn, as if it could cave in at any moment, and the floors were no better. There were thick cords wound around the four pillars in the center of the room, making a moderately-sized fighting ring.</p>
<p>“This is barbaric,” the doctor lowly commented, making Geoffrey sigh.</p>
<p>“Fine, moral compass, you win,” he growled. “I won’t place any bets. But, we’re staying to watch at least one of these damned things since we walked all the way out here, and I want you to know just how much money you’ve cost me in the event that my boy wins.”</p>
<p>Jonathan threw back his head and gave a sharp laugh.</p>
<p>“Your boy, huh?” He doubted. “Thought you said that you’ve never been here before tonight?”</p>
<p>McCullum rolled his eyes, taking the doctor’s hand and leading him over near the front of the crowd to stand up closer to the ring.</p>
<p>“I haven’t,” the hunter insisted. “But the lads have me rather interested in this kid. He’s from the city that I grew up in, you know? And he’s only 24. He’s making a killing out here. They say he’s unstoppable. I’m curious.”</p>
<p>Jonathan shook his head and folded his arms over his chest.</p>
<p>McCullum sighed, but allowed the doctor to pout all he wanted. He knew that the vampire was not going to ditch him tonight, but he still inwardly promised that he would not waste their entire evening here. The hunter glanced around, taking in more his surroundings, when a familiar face off to his left and much closer to Jonathan caught his eye.</p>
<p>It was Arno.</p>
<p>He was standing there, leaning against one of the sturdy pillars that the ring was wrapped around in such a makeshift manner, having what appeared to be a rather intense conversation with a stranger who was wearing a dark red robe. Before Geoffrey could ask if Jonathan could hear their discussion with his enhanced sense of hearing, he noticed the Ekon looking rather focused already.</p>
<p>“Jon, what is it?” Geoffrey tried, putting a gentle hand on the vampire’s arm, when suddenly a deafening bell rang and interrupted the buzz of noise that filled the arena.</p>
<p>“Ladies and gentlemen,” a boisterous voice filled the room over a loudspeaker. “Thank you for coming tonight. In one corner, we have the challenger—London’s very own battling man, Jack Kingsley! In the other corner, we have the undefeated champion—Ireland’s young and mean fighting machine, Cormac O’Connell!”</p>
<p>The announcer went on to give the statistics on both contenders for the fight, but Jonathan found himself unable to hear much else aside from his own racing thoughts. He tugged lightly at Geoffrey’s sleeve, before leaning in to whisper in his ear.</p>
<p>“Geoffrey, that fighter up there—Cormac O’Connell,” Jonathan breathed. “Geoffrey, he’s the Ekon from the sewers that attacked me. He’s a vampire.”</p>
<p>McCullum blanched slightly at that, eyes immediately darting to the face of the beloved boxing champion.</p>
<p>That was impossible.</p>
<p>There was simply no way that none of his men, trained vampire hunters, who had been going to these fights, laid eyes on the man and did not realize that he was a vampire. The more Geoffrey looked, the more evidence was there—albeit, he would admit that the young man hid it well. He was pale, but not a sickly pallid shade, as most vampires were. He was even a bit darker than Reid. He had vivid gray-blue eyes, which Geoffrey figured meant that the Ekon had not yet embraced anyone. His hair was a dark red shade and cropped neatly on top of his head, almost exactly as Jonathan had described it before. He had muscles upon muscles, his whole body hard from years of rigorous training—now permanently frozen to look like that forever due to his undead nature.</p>
<p><em>Fine, so maybe he can pass as an athletic human a little better than other leeches, but it’s so obvious now,</em> McCullum bitterly thought. <em>He’s holding back his strength. And from what Jonathan described, this little bastard has a lot of it.</em></p>
<p>He watched the ring, as the celebrated boxer moved effortlessly around his opponent, dodging blows with speed that was just slightly off from being human, but not nearly as fast a speed as what Geoffrey knew most vampire’s could move at. The vampire was then throwing punches, and though they were obviously powerful, enough to knock his opponent down or stop him in his tracks, they were not nearly as devastating as what an Ekon’s fist to the face of some puny human should be.</p>
<p><em>Arno,</em> McCullum remembered. <em>He was talking to someone in a red cloak…that was O’Connell’s robe.</em></p>
<p>The hunter swore.</p>
<p>He touched Jonathan and pointed out Arno in the crowd that was standing a bit away from the two of them.</p>
<p>“That’s Arno Beaumont, Captain of the Paris Guard of Priwen,” McCullum explained to the doctor. “He’s the man who came into the office the night we got caught with each other. Before then, he had told me to stop pursuing that Ekon who attacked you, who we now know to be Cormac O’Connell, up there.”</p>
<p>He pointed at the Ekon in the ring before preparing to question Dr. Reid.</p>
<p>“Did you happen to overhear what he was saying to O’Connell before the fight started?” He asked, and Jonathan looked thoughtful.</p>
<p>“I was listening to him,” he admitted, glancing at his feet as though embarrassed for some strange reason. “I recognized that man from the office the other night. He also seemed terribly angry at Mr. O’Connell. They were arguing, and I fear that Captain Beaumont may now be piecing together that not only am I a vampire, but that you and I are involved.”</p>
<p>McCullum felt as if he had taken one of O’Connell’s punches directly to the gut.</p>
<p>“H-How?” He stammered, preparing to go grab the younger hunter and drag him out of here to demand answers.</p>
<p>“He had accused Mr. O’Connell of feeding on a human,” Dr. Reid told the hunter now. “He said that someone at work tipped him off and told him that Mr. O’Connell injured someone who was dear to him. Mr. O’Connell angrily swore to Mr. Beaumont that he didn’t. He said that he doesn’t attack innocents or feed from humans. More specifically he said, <em>‘So, unless that someone at work is loving on a vampire, it’s not true.’</em>”</p>
<p><em>Damnit,</em> McCullum felt his heart thumping suddenly in his chest. <em>Surely, that brat knows now. But then, why the hell is he here? Why the hell is he so protective of O’Connell? Why is he trying to discipline him at the thought of him attacking humans? None of this makes sense.</em></p>
<p>“I think we should leave,” Jonathan whispered to the hunter, who nodded once in agreement. The pair of them slipped through the crowd carefully, and McCullum prayed to every god or goddess that would listen that the younger hunter had not seen the two of them together. As the hunter and Ekon walked away from that crowded building and towards the West End, Geoffrey could not help but ponder aloud to Jonathan.</p>
<p>“I need your mind, Jonathan,” he began. “I can’t figure this out. Why is the Paris Guard truly here? Who the hell is this Cormac O’Connell, and where did he suddenly come from? Also, why is Arno so involved in Cormac’s business, and I’m sure he’s been lying to me, so why is he lying and what’s really going on here?”</p>
<p>The doctor thought for a moment, trying to piece together what he heard and saw tonight with what Geoffrey had told him about his encounters with the young French hunter in the past.</p>
<p>“You told me that the night he caught us, he said that he was okay with you be involved with me—which, at the time, he only perceived me to be a man, not also an Ekon. Or, so we thought. He told you that he was also interested in, if not involved with, a man, yes?” Reid now questioned, and Geoffrey nodded.</p>
<p>Jonathan paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing.</p>
<p>“I have a weird inkling of an idea that you and Mr. Beaumont are much more alike that you think.”</p>
<p>Geoffrey narrowed his eyes at that.</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>Jonathan tilted his head and gazed into his lover’s wild eyes before smirking a bit.</p>
<p>“I’m saying, I believe that Mr. Beaumont and Mr. O’Connell are involved in the very same way that you and I are.”</p>
<p><em>What?</em> McCullum’s mind suddenly raced. <em>No, there’s no fucking way another vampire hunter—especially one as skilled and brilliant as Arno—would be stupid enough to try and get in another Ekon’s pants… Don’t get me wrong, I adore Jonathan and trust him with all I have in me, but I understand and accept that it could very well one day end with his fangs in my neck to end me permanently. Even if he doesn't mean to.</em></p>
<p>“I think we should talk to Mr. Beaumont tomorrow evening,” Jonathan said, snapping Geoffrey out of his unbelievable thoughts. “I shall accompany you and we can get answers to this puzzle, together.”</p>
<p>Geoffrey slowly nodded as they neared the Reid manor.</p>
<p>“This is all so bizarre,” he mumbled, and the doctor merely smiled.</p>
<p>“Come on,” he offered. “Let’s get you to bed. You look like you could use a long rest.”</p>
<p>“I could use a drink and a long, hard lay,” McCullum flatly responded, making the vampire snort.</p>
<p>“Well, we’ll get you that, too. Come now, Geoffrey, love.”</p>
<p>The two of them disappeared within Dr. Reid’s home to make good on that proclamation of Geoffrey’s.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The New Hunter & his Ekon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The confirmation of a relationship that you didn't even know you needed. Stuff's getting spicy in here. Warning, sexual content ahead. Enjoy~</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hot—he was always so unbelievably hot, despite how unnaturally cold he was supposed to be.</p><p>His frigid skin should have felt like chilly glass, and yet, whenever he put his hands on the hunter, all the young hunter ever felt was enthralling heat.</p><p>“Cormac,” the hunter groaned, face buried in the soft pillow beneath him. His darkened skin came alive suddenly as the Ekon lavished him with the flames that his kisses always were. Those plump, pale lips scorched their way up from the hunter’s sculpted shoulders, to the back of his neck while those tantalizing hands ran up and down his sides slowly.</p><p>His Ekon did not go unaffected by the deprived way that his name slipped from the hunter’s mouth. He rubbed his hardening length between the exposed cleft of the hunter’s firm behind. The hunter gasped and swore, voice growing a bit louder.</p><p>“Yes, baby? Talk to me. Tell your man what you need,” the vampire drawled, nipping so gently at the human’s neck, careful not to accidentally puncture the flesh. He relished the anguished groan that the young hunter uttered, and the way that he ground himself backwards onto the vampire’s straining erection.</p><p>“Oh, yes,” the vampire purred, running a hand through his own dark red locks to push them out of his face so that he could better see the man underneath him. “That’s all mine. Give it back to me, babe.”</p><p>His voice was so guttural with raw need and encouragement, and it compelled the hunter to obey instantly. This Ekon knew exactly how to make this handsome human feel totally wanted, and it had the hunter desperate to give the vampire what he had asked for. The hunter put his weight on his forearms as he lifted himself just slightly off the bed, offering up his arse so nicely to the vampire, who leaned forward and gripped the man by the hips in response.</p><p>“Cormac,” the hunter pleaded. Now that his weight was being completely supported by the devilishly strong creature behind him, he slipped his hand down between his legs to touch himself. The Ekon smirked and planted a kiss on that round, tightly toned cheek that was right in front of his face. When he spoke, his breath whisked across the hunter’s entrance, and it made his human’s toes curl with tortured delight.</p><p>“No,” the redhead scolded. “Not until I say so.”</p><p>The hunter panted, refusing to release his hold on his own cock, though no longer attempting to stroke it.</p><p>The Ekon shifted his own weight a bit, holding up the human with his left arm and using his right to send a stinging slap to the hunter’s firm cheek. There was a reddened print of the vampire’s palm clearly across the hunter’s arse, and the sensation of it being rubbed firmly by the Ekon was enough to make the hunter surrender with a deep moan, releasing his desperate cock as he was initially commanded to.</p><p>“That’s it,” the vampire breathed, leaning closer and kissing over the spot that he had smacked before turning his attention back to the hunter’s unattended entrance. “Oh, look at that. I want you to focus on me for now, baby. I want you to feel it when I put my mouth all over you—exactly where I’m going to put my cock soon.”</p><p>The hunter always knew what to expect, and yet, the sinful promises that the vampire was making coupled with the way that tongue was on him so slowly—so lovingly—it was enough to make him scream.</p><p>“Cormac!” The hunter cried, involuntarily snapping his hips upward as his Ekon plunged into him, working him open and lathering his insides with a warm wetness that was enough to drive him mad very quickly. His toes curled and he tried to reach for the pillows or sheets, just so he could have anything to fist his hands around and pull on to distract himself from the mind-shattering sensation of his lover’s tongue that was now assaulting his prostate.</p><p>“Cormac! Fuck, I’m there! Please!” The hunter begged, praying that the vampire would stop teasing and just fuck into him already. Much to his relief, the Ekon pulled back out of him and lowered his trembling form down to the mattress. Cormac was always this enthusiastic and rough with him, but then again, the hunter was always so eager for it and had always preferred his lovemaking to be a bit more on the forceful and demanding side. Sometimes they went slow, but not tonight. Cormac was the answer to every filthy desire that the hunter had ever allowed to infiltrate his mind, and the hunter adored him fiercely for it. He allowed the hunter a chance to be as unhinged and free as humanly possible, without any sort of judgment whatsoever, and it was something that the hunter could have latched onto forever.</p><p>“Mm, you’re there, huh?” The Ekon’s voice rumbled lowly. He was breathing a bit labored and his fangs flashed as he attempted to regain control over the fiery thrill that had quickly consumed him. He had so much energy that he was more than ready to give to his lover. “That little spot of yours is all your pleasure, huh? Should I press on it some more?”</p><p>He leaned in and pinned the hunter by the shoulders, while gently biting down on the human’s throat just before moving to trail heated kisses all the way up to eagerly awaiting lips. The hunter turned his head to meet his Ekon’s gorgeous mouth, melting into the way the vampire’s lips made his body light up.</p><p>“What should I use, baby? Want my tongue again?” The vampire devilishly taunted, smirking wickedly at the way his lover writhed and wrapped well-muscled arms around him. “Or does someone need something a bit bigger to be sated?”</p><p>This was a familiar game that the Ekon enjoyed playing with his lover. He lived for the begging; he lived for the control. He could perform like this for hours, making an utter mess of the hunter until the hunter would finally break and plead in just the perfect way for the vampire. Well, the hunter was simply not in the mood for that game tonight. He needed the Ekon, and he needed him now. He would end this quickly, for every second that passed where he was not filled to the brim with the vampire was time wasted.</p><p>“Please, Cormac! Your cock,” the hunter practically whined. He trembled and bit his lower lip, giving the Ekon a seductive look before breathlessly demanding further. “Use your cock on me, love. Use me.”</p><p>He was startled suddenly as powerful hands grabbed his hips from behind and pulled him closer to that barely warm body that trapped him against the bed. They were both slick with sweat and gasping heavily, and the hunter felt as though his heart would beat right out of his chest from this stimulating excitement. The vampire was spreading him wonderfully, and he felt the blunt head of the Ekon’s length teasing at his hole so alluringly.</p><p>“Fuck, Arno,” the vampire rasped, sounding more strained than he had all night. He quickly spoke on a deep exhale, “Baby, I love you so much. You know just how to get me riled up.”</p><p>Warmth flooded the hunter’s tanned face as he felt himself swelling within his chest. He could physically feel how badly the Ekon wanted him, and he knew the vampire could sense his own desire that was coming off him in waves. It was all for Cormac—it always had been, and it always would be. Nobody else had ever made the hunter feel so full of love and yearning like this before. He knew that he would always crave this.</p><p>“Take it, babe,” the vampire murmured a warning before slowly pressing the tip of himself into the hunter. Claws played at the hunter’s hips as the Ekon swore and groaned lowly, taking a moment to breathe and find some handle of control. It took everything in him not to shove wildly into that hot, wet heat that now enveloped his most sensitive part and deliciously squeezed around him—all courtesy of his gorgeous lover, of course. Once the initial thick haze cleared from his mind, he pressed in deeper, growling at the strangled gasp and slew of unintelligible praises that escaped the hunter’s lips.</p><p>“Ah, Cormac! So big, fuck! All the way, please!” Arno had begged, attempting to writhe uselessly under the steel grip that had him pinned completely to the mattress. Cormac would work at his own pace, but damnit if he did not pick it up a bit at the mischievous pleas that his lover spilt. The hunter knew exactly what he was doing to the Ekon. Once the vampire was fully buried within the hunter, he did not hesitate, and he set a bruising pace to begin pounding into the moaning man beneath him.</p><p>Skin to skin noises, that heavy weight on top of him, all that warmth and the fire that licked up his entire body was enough to set the hunter on edge immediately. The delicious sounds and encouragement that his Ekon was purring at him was enough to have the hunter ready to come right there on the spot. He needed more—he needed all that man had to give him, pulsing hot inside of him.</p><p>“Cormac,” Arno breathlessly whimpered. “There, please. Please, put it all in me. Fill me…”</p><p>The vampire smirked, understanding instantly what his hunter preferred. He ran a claw gently up the hunter’s powerful backside, leaving a trail of delicate, reddish scratches upwards towards the back of the hunter’s neck.</p><p>“Hm, I wanted to finish all over that beautiful mouth of yours,” the Ekon taunted, and he chuckled lowly at the displeased whine the hunter gave in response. The hunter would not be beaten so easily; he would have precisely what he wanted from the vampire.</p><p>“No,” he purred, wiggling underneath Cormac desperately. “Fill me. Claim me…mark me as yours, Cormac.”</p><p>“I’m sure I can mark you just as well anywhere on that gorgeous body of yours, love, not just in your arse,” the Ekon drawled, and this time, the hunter knew how to make this stubborn creature give it to him. He twisted himself slightly to the side, so that he could look into those gray-blue eyes that gazed so intensely down at him.</p><p>“I’m around so many other men at work,” the hunter huffed, giving a lustful, half-lidded stare to the Ekon. “I share a space with one of them. They all are around me and get to see me all the time when you don’t. Some are rather handsome…and I think some of them find me rather desirable, too.”</p><p>The vampire snarled, a beastly growl rumbling low from his throat and a possessive hand suddenly clamped down on the hunter’s own neck. It was firm, but plenty controlling, as that hand forced the hunter decisively down into the mattress and the tempo of the Ekon’s heated thrusting nearly doubled. That cock, so swollen and thick with blood, slammed into his prostate repeatedly, and the hunter shrieked his ecstasy and swore from the rapidly-building fire that raced through his groin.</p><p>“Mine,” the vampire enviously hissed, fangs snapping shut as he struggled to control himself. His pupils were blown wide as he stared down at the alluring being before him. He wanted to bite him, to really mark him up that way and sample the sweet blood that he knew was coursing through those vessels. But even in his bloodlust and sexual haze, he had the sense to know that he would definitely hurt the hunter like this if he tried, and he absolutely refused to let that happen.</p><p>“Cormac, I’m—I’m coming,” the hunter softly moaned. He twitched and felt himself surrendering as his climax dangerously neared. His breath hitched and he finally shouted.</p><p>“Cormac!” The hunter sobbed as his orgasm violently rocked through him. He had come from the blissful friction underneath him and the sensation that his lover was still pounding into him. Those pleasured cries were enough to send Cormac tumbling over the edge with him.</p><p>The Ekon grunted, biting off his own delighted scream as he felt himself finish deep into the hunter’s lovely body. He came in aching spurts and he clung to the hunter desperately as he rode out the final passionate waves that thrummed through him. He took a moment to just breathe deeply, inhaling the earthy smell that was that of the hunter before pulling out and climbing off the other man to settle into the bed beside him.</p><p>“Satisfied?” Arno asked the vampire, who gave a tired smiled and reached over to brush his fingers through that mess of curls upon the hunter’s head.</p><p>“Yes,” Cormac gently breathed, before lightly tugging on a curl. “I’m all for jokes at any moment, but I don’t like <em>that</em> joke, you know?”</p><p>“What?” The hunter feigned innocence, making the vampire roll his eyes and growl lowly, despite the smile that still played at the corners of his lips.</p><p>“I’m yours, and you are mine,” Cormac told him, and Arno rolled over to embrace the Ekon and press kisses all up his defined forearm and bicep.</p><p>“That I am, and that you are,” the hunter responded. “I was only teasing. You are, undoubtedly, the only man for me. Besides, all those men at the Guard and not even one of them is cute <em>and</em> smells decent. They all stink like a bunch of teenagers somehow. It's a deal-breaker for me.”</p><p>“Nobody is as cute as me,” Cormac flashed a wicked, toothy grin, making the hunter roll his eyes and chuckle.</p><p>“Oh, but you stink,” he countered, sitting up slowly and trying not to laugh at the obnoxiously pretend look of hurt that the vampire was giving him. To see one of the fiercest, most-deadly Ekons around giving him the sad puppy eyes was quite the comical sight.</p><p>“You stunk after your match and you stink even worse now. You’re all sweaty.”</p><p>“You like it,” Cormac teased, as Arno leapt up from his bed before Cormac could throw his clammy form all over him, as he knew damn well this childish vampire would attempt to do.</p><p><em>You’re only 2 years younger than I am, and yet, you act as if you’re 10 sometimes. You may be doomed to never grow up, and I'm cursed to deal with your shit forever,</em> the hunter thought, shaking his head. Despite this, it was still an endearing thought for the hunter, for this happy-go-lucky Ekon belonged completely to him. </p><p>“Maybe so, but you still need a bath,” the hunter answered, heading toward the bathroom door. “Come, love. I need one, too.”</p><p>The vampire dragged himself form the bed and hurried into the bathroom after his beloved hunter on command.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Trapped by Blood, Saved by Blood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Geoffrey is trailing after Cormac O'Connell, suspicious of the Ekon and refusing to blindly believe the claims that perhaps this Ekon really has, and abides by, the same vows that his Jonathan does. In doing so, McCullum finds himself trapped in a horrifying place and he has to rely on an unlikely ally to get him out. These Ekons have a way of worming themselves into places they don't belong. The mystery unravels further, but leaves a lot more questions unanswered.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had one hour left before Jonathan was off the clock at work and would be expecting him back at Reid manor. He could track a powerful Ekon down in an hour, right? It was not as if he had wasted his entire night trailing after the anomaly that was Cormac O’Connell, right? Wrong—he had just squandered the last five hours doing exactly that, and it made Geoffrey McCullum grimace upon the realization that he likely seemed insane with just how much he had been chasing after this vampire for the last few nights.</p><p><em>It’s not that I don’t believe Arno, or Reid’s warnings, it’s just…well, he’s a bloody leech,</em> Geoffrey defended himself.<em> I must see it with my own eyes that he won’t attack an innocent and that he doesn’t feed from humans. It's very hard to believe that there are multiple leeches out there now who happen to have Reid's level of self-control.</em></p><p>One incredibly sad, new thought crossed his mind before he could stop the thought.</p><p>
  <em>And if I do catch him in the act of falling prey to his own nature and I must put him down, then what? What if Jonathan’s right and Arno really has been running around with O’Connell? How exactly am I supposed to tell him that I killed his boyfriend?</em>
</p><p>The hunter sighed.</p><p>He knew it was his job, but he also knew how he would feel if one of the other Guards was sneaking around after Jonathan, or worse—if one of them harmed Jonathan. The thought was unbearable to think about, even if Jonathan suddenly caved and started feeding off humans and slaughtering innocents. He would still hurt, all the same, because of all the time he and the doctor have had together, because of the way the vampire still made his heart race whenever he set his eyes upon him. He was in love with that Ekon, in likely the same way that Arno was in love with Cormac. This was hypocritical of him, but the moment that he saw that flash of red hair tangled in the shadows and moving too quickly to be anything other than the Ekon in question, Geoffrey was unable to think of much else aside from following the vampire.</p><p>McCullum silently hurried after O’Connell, maneuvering down the embankment stairs and watching as he slipped within the sewers. Geoffrey decided to follow anyway, knowing that this likely would prove to be unfruitful in his spying.</p><p><em>I may get to kill a skal or two,</em> the hunter thought with a shrug as he descended the grimy stairs into darkness.</p><p>He went to strike a torch, but then realized that he would be giving away his position to any possible dangers that were lurking around these winding hallways and twisting corners. The hunter grimaced as he placed his hand along the wall and felt his way further up the narrow tunnel and attempting to listen carefully to his surroundings to make up for not being able to see.</p><p><em>Shit, this is much easier with Reid here to be my eyes and lead me,</em> Geoffrey defeatedly thought. <em>Maybe I should turn back…none of the men even know I’m here.</em></p><p>Before he had a choice to do that, however, he heard the familiar accent of the newer Ekon ring out from one of the tunnels further in.</p><p>“Bastard! Come back!”</p><p>Furious footsteps could be heard moving further away from Geoffrey, and he made the split decision to run after the sound of the youthful vampire. He ran until his lungs burned, and he felt as though his heart were pounding into his throat. The hunter finally stopped in some chamber further within the sewer, in a place that he could not recall if he had ever even explored before. It certainly was not a part of his regular patrol routes, for he would remember such a hellscape if he had been here before.</p><p>The room was lit just slightly better, as moonlight poured in from the large grate in the ceiling. This made it easier for the hunter to see whatever torture chamber he had just stumbled upon.</p><p>There was blood all over the room—smearing the walls, covering the floors in a liquid layer that was about ankle-deep, and in uneven splatters across the high ceiling. There were bones strewn about and decaying corpses piled near the end of this wide hall. The place smelled of death, plain and simple. Like bodies that had been buried and forgotten in a rotting sewer for weeks, which was likely the case for the carcasses found here now.</p><p><em>What the fuck is going on?</em> Geoffrey thought, horrified as he moved toward the wall at the end of the chamber to glance at whatever new sigil was painted on the wall in what the hunter only assumed to be blood. <em>Vampires? Or a cult? Or both? What the fuck—</em></p><p>His thoughts were interrupted suddenly by a lot of low growls and snarls that were echoing from a nearby tunnel. There was something—a lot of somethings—that were undoubtedly coming for the hunter, who remained at a dead end in this hellish room. As the sound of a hoard of skals began approaching, Geoffrey swore lowly to himself and desperately began loading his crossbow and unbuckling every pouch of bolts he had strapped to himself so that he could be quick with his reloading.</p><p><em>I’m going to die,</em> he thought, heart beating faster. <em>These bastards are coming. They can sense me, smell me here. I can’t fight a mob of them alone.</em></p><p>His thoughts wandered to Jonathan, and he swallowed the lump that had settled in his throat and his hands began to tremble.</p><p>
  <em>I’m sorry, Jon…I was so stupid.</em>
</p><p>From above him, there was a soft gasp that caused him to look up at the sewer grate.</p><p>“Hey, what the hell are you doing in there?” the familiar voice of the redhaired Ekon snapped down at the hunter.</p><p><em>He’s my only chance at getting out of here alive,</em> McCullum realized, and swallowed again.</p><p>“I got dragged in here, help me!” The hunter hissed, and the vampire above him nodded.</p><p>“Stay put,” Cormac growled. “I’m coming down to get you.”</p><p><em>Hurry. They are coming,</em> Geoffrey felt desperate, turning to watch the entrance to the chamber that he was trapped in. <em>If just one comes in here and pins me, I’m dead.</em></p><p>From above him, he could hear the Ekon grunting and the ugly groans of ancient metal being roughly displaced. McCullum chanced a glance up just in time to see the vampire shadow-jump through the newly created opening in the ceiling grate. When Cormac landed beside the hunter, McCullum noticed that the vampire’s face and neck were covered completely in blood, some of it staining the Ekon’s gray shirt and making it cling to his body in a way that could not have been comfortable.</p><p>From across the room, a mess of decaying bodies were sprinting towards the pair of them. McCullum felt the panicked cry catch in his throat, and the Ekon swore lowly. Cormac jumped again, grabbing onto the hunter and Geoffrey had just enough sense to realize what was about to happen, and he held his breath as the Ekon jumped them both upwards.</p><p>When the cool night air hit McCullum’s face, he was so startled, but so relieved, that he felt himself gasp loudly and shudder. Cormac made quick work of the sewer grate, forcing the bars back into place as they were supposed to be before he turned and sat down on the dirty cobblestone beside the grate.</p><p>“Well, that was stressful. Didn't think I could make that high of a jump. That's a new personal record, cool,” the Ekon joked, and the hunter stared at him blankly.</p><p>“What?” the vampire demanded, eyeing the burly hunter up in response. “I think your correct phrase is, <em>‘thank you for saving my life, kind stranger, how am I to repay you?’ </em>Ah yes, thank you for asking me, kind civilian. I take coin directly, or you'll have to offer me something really worthwhile. Before you go there, I'm happily taken, so don't get any freaky ideas.”</p><p>“Shut it, you bloodsucker,” McCullum growled, and much to his surprise, the Ekon threw back his head and gave a wild laugh. He narrowed his eyes, as the vampire comically laid back on the ground and sprawled his arms and legs out as if he were suddenly exhausted.</p><p>“Do all Priwen have sticks up their arses?” Cormac asked, and Geoffrey rolled his eyes.</p><p>“I suppose all leeches are equally insufferable,” he threw back, growing warm when the vampire snorted. “How do you know I’m Priwen.”</p><p>This time, the Ekon cackled, and the hunter had to raise a crossbow at him to make the vampire quiet down. It would be a shame if one of his men walked by and caught him here with the vampire. He would have no choice but to shoot the Ekon. </p><p>
  <em>Though the way this one prattles on, something tells me that's the only way you make it shut up. </em>
</p><p>“You look as if you’ve been wearing the same ratty clothes for years, no offense,” Cormac pointedly responded. “You lot make so little money, that it’s a wonder how any of you haven’t starved to death, yet. Besides, I<em> just know</em>.”</p><p>“Right, you<em> just know</em>,” Geoffrey growled, ignoring the smug look that was plastered to the Ekon’s face. “So, leech. Since you<em> just know</em> everything, tell me this—what the fuck is going on down there in that murder chamber? Where the hell are all those skals suddenly coming from now? And don’t you dare spin me a lie, I’ve a good nose for machinations.”</p><p>The vampire sat up slowly, looking the hunter up and down before cracking a sly smile.</p><p>“So, you all do have sticks up your arses,” he muttered and ran a hand through his hair before speaking up and glancing directly at the hunter.</p><p>“Honestly, I am working on an answer to that,” the Ekon finally said, making McCullum groan and roll his eyes. “I swear! I was literally sent to this dump of a city with the sole purpose of figuring it out and stopping it.”</p><p>“Really? Do tell, leech, who sent you here on this special little mission to save our city from all the other nasty vampires out there?” Geoffrey demanded, and this time, the vampire actually did not appear to have a joke or grin.</p><p>“I—uh, I don’t actually know,” he responded, and McCullum swore.</p><p>“Bullshit,” he growled, and the vampire stood up abruptly.</p><p>“I’m not lying!” the Ekon insisted, and McCullum began to pace before him.</p><p>“Shut it,” the hunter grumbled, rubbing at his temples, and deciding that it was beyond time for him to head to the Reid manor.</p><p>“Listen up, leech,” Geoffrey started, as Cormac suddenly stood straight upright and did a mock salute. Irritated, McCullum slapped the Ekon’s arm away from his forehead and pointed much too close to the other vampire’s mouth.</p><p><em>Fuck me, it’s like talking to a child,</em> McCullum realized, slightly embarrassed, but mostly annoyed that he had let this Ekon get under his skin so quickly.</p><p>“Listen,” McCullum growled again. “I don’t know what the hell is going on around here, but I swear, I am going to find out. You continue to stay out of the way, and I won’t kill you. You’re clearly not harming humans, so you’re free to go—”</p><p>Geoffrey snapped his fingers directly in the face of the Ekon at the goofy grin that began playing at the vampire’s lips.</p><p>“If I catch you going after humans or harming innocents,” McCullum continued seriously. “You’re done, leech. Understand?”</p><p>“Yes, sir,” the Ekon sneered.</p><p>“Now, leave me alone,” Geoffrey flatly responded, turning and starting towards the direction of the West End, cursing himself that he would be late to the Reid manor and surely Jonathan would be furious at him for going into the sewers alone.</p><p>“You know, you never did thank me,” Cormac called, and McCullum ignored him and kept walking.</p><p><em>Piss off,</em> McCullum sourly thought, readjusting his belt, and clipping all his bolt pouches shut again. <em>There’s only room in my heart for one bloody leech.</em></p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Questions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Geoffrey survived the sewers and Jonathan is furious at him for going into them alone in the first place. However, as McCullum explains what he found down there, Jonathan begins to realize the haunting similarities that he once unraveled on his own just a few years ago. The thread leads them back to one place, and the two leap to follow it.</p>
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    <p>When Geoffrey thought that Jonathan would be upset by him going down into the sewers and almost being devoured by a hoard of ravenous skals, he had severely misjudged the level of the doctor’s fury. Dr. Reid paced frantically across the floor of his bedroom as McCullum eyed him up from the small stool near the workbench that he sat upon.</p><p>“I <em>cannot</em> believe you,” Jonathan growled, balling his hands into fists as he went on ranting at the stubborn hunter. “First, both Arno and I tell you not to go after Cormac O’Connell, and what do you do? You go after Cormac O’Connell. Not only do you waste an entire night that you could have been using to further investigate the skal outbreak with following an Ekon who isn’t guilty of anything, but you nearly get yourself killed in the process. I’ve told you before not to go into the sewers alone, and what do you do? You go into the sewers alone. Have you any idea what could have happened if Mr. O’Connell hadn’t come around when he did?”</p><p>“I have a pretty good idea,” Geoffrey mumbled, and Jonathan snapped his attention back to the hunter, making the brawny man recoil.</p><p>“You would have died, Geoffrey,” Jonathan snarled. “Do you understand? You would have been torn apart beyond recognition and nobody would have any clue what happened to you. And I would…I’d be alone, Geoffrey—”</p><p>The vampire suddenly turned away and huffed weakly.</p><p>McCullum watched as the Ekon pawed at his face and his hand came away stained red from bloody tears. Geoffrey felt something pulling harshly within his chest and he slowly got up and crossed the room to go be with the vampire.</p><p>“Jonathan, I am sorry,” the hunter murmured, wrapping his arms around the doctor, who allowed himself to be swept up in a strong embrace. “I can tell you what I was thinking, but I know it’s no consolation for what I did. I risked my life for a stupid prejudice that I hardly believe in anymore. It was dishonest, it was dangerous, and it was most wrong to do it all without telling or involving you. I won’t do it ever again, I swear.”</p><p><em>Almost being eaten alive was a lesson that I won’t ever forget,</em> the hunter thought, grimacing.</p><p>The vampire nodded once and turned to press his lips against Geoffrey’s cheek.</p><p>“I am sorry I got so worked up and shouted at you,” Jonathan responded. “I just…I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”</p><p>
  <em>Yes, the realization that I work a dangerous profession and will ultimately succumb to my own mortality eventually, likely from said career, is a rather miserable one.</em>
</p><p>The hunter walked the Ekon back slowly and pushed him onto the bed. The vampire gazed up at Geoffrey curiously before spreading his legs enough for his lover to settle in between them and over him protectively. Geoffrey began trailing sloppy, open-mouthed kisses up the Ekon’s neck slowly, drawing out delightful little moans of pleasure from the vampire.</p><p>“Ah, before we get too comfy, there is something I have to tell you,” the hunter lowly spoke. “About what I found down in the sewers.”</p><p>The vampire laid back against his soft sheets and nodded at Geoffrey to continue.</p><p>“There was this chamber that I got trapped in, where Cormac pulled me from, that was…horrible,” he recalled. “There was a layer of blood on the floor that went up to my ankles, and there was blood smeared all over the walls and even the ceiling. On the further wall from the tunnel’s entrance, there was some strange marking, maybe a sigil, drawn in <em>blood.</em> There were bones and decaying bodies scattered across the floor. It was hard to tell if it was a vampire’s doing or some sort of occult happening.”</p><p>“We don’t have a lot of that around here,” Jonathan pointed out, and Geoffrey shrugged.</p><p>“Doesn’t mean there aren’t fanatics who would do worship some bloody beast and do something like this,” McCullum challenged. The vampire shrugged but appeared deeply in thought for a few moments. His icy eyes widened unexpectedly, and he tried to sit up as much as he could from underneath the hunter before speaking.</p><p>“All that blood reminds me a lot of what happened to the room when the Red Queen revealed her avatar to me,” Jonathan told. “The floor being filled up with all that blood.”</p><p>“Geoffrey—” Jonathan suddenly gasped. “What if she’s back? What if there’s another Disaster in the making and that’s why all this is happening? The skal epidemic, all the blood in the sewers, a new and powerful Ekon suddenly appearing out of nowhere claiming to have been sent here to stop this, and yet he doesn’t even know who sent him?”</p><p>Jonathan froze, jaw going slack for a moment before shaking his head.</p><p>“What if Cormac was sired by my Maker?”</p><p>Geoffrey suddenly leapt up from the bed and backed away, speechless at the thought.</p><p>“It makes sense,” the vampire pondered. “This is all way too familiar. It’s too much like how it happened years ago.”</p><p>Geoffrey shook his head weakly. Though he hated to think that the Red Queen was attempting to come back and ruin the world so soon after Jonathan had put a stop to her, Jonathan’s logic made too much sense to simply ignore.</p><p><em>What if he failed? Or he didn’t send her to sleep correctly—it wasn’t a deep sleep, but a nap?</em> Geoffrey considered. <em>And then O’Connell was sent here to finish the job that Jonathan started years ago?</em></p><p>“We need to find Cormac,” Geoffrey abruptly stated, and the Ekon nodded his head in agreement. Jonathan quickly crawled off the bed and went to fetch his coat. Once he was fully-dressed, he headed towards the door after the hunter.</p><p>
  <em>I just hope I didn't piss him off enough the other night to where he won't listen to me anymore... </em>
</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Unexpected</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>McCullum finds Cormac and puts himself in an incredibly awkward position between the Ekon and the younger hunter. Cormac just needed a little love from his human and this is what ensues?</p>
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    <p><em>Another useless night of hunting,</em> the Ekon thought. <em>This is getting old rather fast.</em></p><p>The redheaded vampire headed towards the loft as he could sense the impending sunrise. He shadow-jumped from the street to the balcony that was high above him currently. Landing gracefully and silently, he lowered his red robe slowly as he walked through the small door that led into the loft.</p><p>“Shirtless already, oh my,” that familiar accented voice called from across the room, making the Ekon pleasantly smirk. “Did someone have a rough night?”</p><p>Cormac tossed his robe on the couch as he made for the bed that was leaning against the far wall of their shared space, upon which, his hunter was sprawled out on and nonchalantly reading some reports.</p><p>“You could say that,” the vampire drawled. “Why? What are you going to do about it?”</p><p>The hunter smiled, tanned face looking so smooth and handsome in the dim light that illuminated it now.</p><p>“I was going to offer you my services,” Arno replied, giving his Ekon a wicked grin. “I know how you get when you’re like this. So restless—you can take your frustrations out on me.”</p><p>The teasing had Cormac beaming as he lowered himself down onto the bed near his lover, who looked so inviting while wearing just his smalls. The Ekon’s lips immediately met those of the hunter, and both men moaned into the kiss as Cormac made to deepen it by taking the hunter’s chin and angling Arno’s face towards his.</p><p>“I can’t find shit here,” Cormac murmured, growling lowly as Arno tried to touch him. He roughly pinned Arno to the mattress with one firm hand around the hunter’s throat. The Ekon was indeed frustrated, and his hunter knew exactly how to make him relax and feel better.</p><p>“Mm, Cormac,” Arno rasped out, writhing playfully from underneath the vampire’s iron grip. “We’ll go looking together. I promise you that we will figure out what’s happening around here soon. But for now, I want you to fuck me senseless.”</p><p>The vampire felt his breath catch slightly at the bluntness displayed by his hunter, as a low rumble sounded from his chest and gullet. He lifted slightly to drop his shorts before grinding himself up against the man underneath him. They both were wearing only their underwear, and yet, the room felt about ten degrees hotter.</p><p>“I want to taste you so badly,” Cormac huffed against the shell of Arno’s ear, making the man moan lowly. “Want to put my teeth and tongue all over you.”</p><p>He nipped lower down the hunter’s throat, and Arno’s breath snared within his throat as the Ekon’s teeth hovered at the small junction there.</p><p>“Cormac, easy,” Arno warned, struggling from under the vampire’s powerful grasp. Sure, they had made love many times during their time together, and it only seemed to get better with each time that they coupled, but this was new territory. Cormac had never tried to bite him in the past, and Arno was unsure of everything right now. Both he and Cormac were not wholly confident if Cormac had the willpower to control himself if he did bite into Arno.</p><p>Cormac had expressed to him before just how enticing Arno’s blood was to him. He had also told Arno before that he was uncertain if he could have “just one bite” of the hunter. He believed that if he spilled and tasted the hunter’s sweet-smelling blood, he would lose his sense and wind up draining the hunter. And Arno knew very well that the Ekon was much too strong for him. Cormac was much physically stronger than any other vampire that the hunter had come across, and he knew that the second Cormac had him in that iron grip of his, he would be unable to break free. Especially without a weapon, though he felt repulsed by the notion of having to hurt his vampire lover for any reason—even if it may be warranted.</p><p>Now, in this licentious haze, Arno doubted Cormac’s ability to control himself.</p><p>“Cormac,” Arno tried again, body betraying him as his lover’s name fell out of his mouth in a raspy moan. The way that the vampire groaned and pressed his rock-hard length up against him almost made him crumble right there.</p><p><em>If he did bite me, I might just lose myself,</em> Arno wantonly realized. <em>This is getting dangerous.</em></p><p>“Cormac, you need to breathe and relax,” Arno decisively stated, sighing softly as the Ekon’s hand loosened the grip on his neck. However, those fangs did not move away from the hunter’s throat, and Cormac whined once before running his warm, wet tongue all down the side of the hunter’s neck.</p><p>“Arno,” the vampire growled, voice more beast than man at this point, and when the hunter gazed into those usually-bright eyes, he knew the Ekon was almost gone at the way his pupils were already wide with lust.</p><p>“Arno, I’m so fucking hungry,” the Ekon hissed, annunciating his point by dragging fangs along the hunter’s skin and making the hunter buck his hips involuntarily to meet the vampire’s suddenly. “You smell gorgeous. I want you so badly…”</p><p>The hunter writhed again, trying to ease himself up to roll over onto his stomach, protecting his neck much better from this position.</p><p>“Cormac, love, you need to relax,” Arno gasped, as the Ekon’s hands moved to clutch at the hunter’s solid hips and rub tiny circles into them with his thumbs. “Don’t bite, take me this way, instead.”</p><p>Arno felt his boxers sliding down just enough to expose his arse, and then he felt the vampire’s strong hands pawing at his behind desperately. He felt the Ekon’s slick finger pressing at his entrance and he inhaled slowly, waiting for the vampire to push in. The hunter moaned low as he was slowly stretched by his lover, voice building into a crescendo as when he felt that clever digit crook and graze on his most sensitive spot. Arno threw his legs around the vampire urgently and screamed out the Ekon’s name.</p><p>“Wait,” Cormac lowly breathed, prying the hunter’s legs from him suddenly. His attention and gaze shot to their front door at once and he quickly pulled the hunter’s underwear back up.</p><p>“No! Fuck off!”</p><p>The vampire growled and shadow-jumped across the room as the door suddenly exploded open.</p><p>Their door was almost kicked straight off the hinges as a larger man put his foot completely through the wood. The vampire was on him before he had a chance to move any further into their home.</p><p>“Bloody hell, leech, let go of me right now!” the familiar voice bellowed.</p><p>Cormac snarled, lips pulled back and fangs bared menacingly as he had Geoffrey McCullum roughly pinned to the doorframe of the loft. The hunter attempted to struggle out of the Ekon’s tight grip, but the Ekon did not even budge from the hunter’s force.</p><p>“Let go of me before I stake you, bloodsucker! I know that look!” McCullum growled, suddenly moving to strike his forehead against the vampire’s own.</p><p>Cormac reared back a bit, crying out in surprise before readjusting his grip on the hunter, pulling away and surging forward to slam his forehead into Geoffrey’s in retaliation. The hunter swore, the back of his head slamming into the already-shattered doorframe.</p><p>“Enough!”</p><p>Both the Ekon and the London Priwen leader snapped out of their scrap for the moment to turn and see the enraged other captain standing before them. One who was nearly naked, and McCullum’s mouth dropped open at the sight of the other man.</p><p>“Beaumont?” Geoffrey softly questioned, surprised to see the younger hunter in such a position now, and Cormac suddenly growled, twisting McCullum’s wrists furiously to make the hunter stop staring at his lover.</p><p>“Eyes on me, hunter,” Cormac hissed. “Otherwise, I’ll <em>make you</em> look at me instead of him.”</p><p>“Cormac, enough,” Arno lowly commanded. “Let him go.”</p><p>Cormac flashed his fangs in an irate grimace before at last, he released his painful hold on the hunter and shadow-jumped across the room to place his own half-naked body in front of Arno’s, shielding him from the older hunter’s view.</p><p>“McCullum, please go away for a moment,” Arno instructed again. “Allow Mr. O’Connell and I to dress and then you may come in and say whatever it was that you obviously needed to say so suddenly that you had to kick my front door in.”</p><p>The older hunter appeared flushed at this, nodding once before turning to go wait in the hallway.</p><p>When both men were dressed, Arno went and summoned Geoffrey McCullum back into the loft. Arno crossed the room to sit in the armchair and gestured to the couch in offering to McCullum. Meanwhile, Cormac paced furiously behind the sofa, eyes shooting daggers at the hunter as if daring him to sit down with his back to the Ekon.</p><p>“I’ll stand,” McCullum insisted, crossing his arms over his chest, and ignoring the piercing look and ugly snarls that were coming from the vampire across the room.</p><p>“Well, let’s get on with this,” Arno muttered, rolling his eyes, and glancing up at the older hunter. “Why are you here? Why did you kick in my front door?”</p><p>Geoffrey swallowed weakly and took a moment to collect his thoughts before finally opening his mouth to answer the man.</p><p>“I—uh, was following Cormac and I knew he had come up into this loft,” he lowly said, ignoring the positively-enraged gaze of the vampire and continuing. “I was getting ready to go home for the day, when I heard somebody scream from up here. I—I feared that Cormac had some human up here that he was hurting, so I came running.”</p><p>“How very noble,” Cormac suddenly sneered, shadow-jumping across the room and landing directly in front of the older hunter again. He flashed his fangs, disregarding the drool that was pooling from the irritated thoughts that he had been having of sinking his teeth into this annoying hunter’s neck. “But I fucking told you, and proved to you by saving <em>your</em> fucking life, that I <em>do not</em> harm innocent humans.”</p><p>“Easy, leech,” McCullum growled, refusing to cave under Cormac’s animalistic behavior and look. “In case <em>you</em> forgot, I’m a vampire hunter. It’s my <em>job</em> to hunt your kind and make sure that humans are protected from you all. Yes, I believe you, but I will never let my guard down entirely around you or the rest of your kind.”</p><p>“Why were you following me?” the Ekon demanded.</p><p>“I need your help,” the older hunter responded, making the vampire throw back his head and cackle.</p><p>“Oh, how charming,” he snorted as Arno scowled heavily.</p><p>“What do you want, Geoffrey?” Arno asked, appearing very tired suddenly.</p><p>“Look, I’m going to be very honest with you, Arno,” McCullum gently began. “I know that you and Cormac here are in a relationship. I don’t care that he’s a vampire and you’re a hunter. I don’t care because I’m also seeing an Ekon.”</p><p>Cormac practically fell on the floor, unable to contain the mad laughter that erupted from him. Meanwhile, Arno stared, slack-jawed, at the hunter as he attempted to process what the older Guard had just told him.</p><p>“That man from the office…” Arno slowly pieced this information together. “He was a vampire?”</p><p>“That was Dr. Jonathan Reid,” Geoffrey told. “That powerful Ekon I told you about who saved London a few years ago by stopping the skal epidemic and the Disaster that led to it, initially.”</p><p>Cormac stopped laughing and quickly picked himself up to face the hunter immediately.</p><p>“Wait,” he questioned. “What do you mean by <em>‘he stopped the skal epidemic.’</em> How’s that possible?”</p><p>“You’re going to want to talk to him, Cormac,” Geoffrey insisted. “Really. He has answers to your questions that I don’t have. He also has a theory that you two are related, somewhat. Again, please save your questions for him.”</p><p>Geoffrey lowered his eyes.</p><p>“I know I made a rather startling entrance tonight and have bothered you enough, Cormac,” he quietly said. “But my Jonathan seems to think that you are London’s main hope right now and he begged me to find you and convince you to talk to him tonight. He has invited both of you to his manor in the West End. I can give directions if you’re interested. I assure you that this is not a trap or a joke. This is serious, Cormac. If Jonathan believes this, then so do I. We need your help in ending this skal epidemic and preventing something much worse from starting here.”</p><p>The Ekon glanced to the younger hunter and they stared at each other for a moment. Arno nodded at Cormac, who finally sighed and bobbed his head in agreement.</p><p>“Alright, McCullum,” he answered. “We’ll both come see Dr. Reid tonight.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Geoffrey exhaled.</p><p>“So, now that you’ve completely cockblocked me, please get out so I can fix this damn door and get some sleep,” the vampire flatly responded.</p><p>He was unable to hold back the chuckle at the freshly reddened cheeks of the older hunter who nodded and reeled backwards to exit the loft, leaving the Ekon alone with his lover.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. An Awkward Meeting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The time has finally come for Cormac to get his answers. He and Arno sit down with Geoffrey and Jonathan to be briefed on what exactly Cormac is supposed to do in order to save the city as his mysterious maker had hoped for him to do.</p><p>Apologies on the wait, guys. I had such a writer's block for literally just this story. It's dumb too, because I literally have it all written out on what I want to happen and know where I am going with it. I just couldn't motivate myself to write it for the longest time, so I started playing with some other stuff I was working on. But, here I am again. Thanks so much to all of your kind words and encouragement. You all drew me right back here. ~Aries</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Fancy place you got here, doc,” Cormac was saying as he put his hands all over practically every shiny and flawlessly cleaned space in the parlor, instantly smudging them with his fighter’s hands. Every time he moved to try and lift something that seemed more expensive than everything he owned, Arno would smack his arm and place the trinket back down on the table safely.</p><p>“This isn’t ours, Cormac,” Arno hissed, making the Ekon wickedly smirk.</p><p>“Forgive me, I have just never seen such pretty things before,” he retorted, before turning to face the hunter beside him.</p><p>“Except for you,” he breathed, exhaling softly against Arno’s lips and capturing them in a smoldering kiss. His hand reached up to trap the hunter’s face against his own, relishing in the surprised noise that his hunter answered with.</p><p>Geoffrey McCullum cleared his throat suddenly, causing Arno to push on Cormac’s chest slightly. They broke apart and Arno turned several different shades of red as Cormac merely wiped his lips with a finger and grinned even more devilishly than before.</p><p>“If you’re finished with the dick measuring competition—<em>Cormac</em>,” McCullum growled, ignoring the sharp bark of a laugh that the vampire emitted in response. “Jonathan is waiting to see you both in the dining room now.”</p><p>The older hunter led the way through the house that had become so familiar to him. He nodded once at Avery, who appeared to be curiously staring at the three men that moved through the hallway just past the kitchen. When the trio entered the dining room, Geoffrey made sure to pull the doors shut behind him before gesturing towards the table for Arno and Cormac.</p><p>“You must be Arno Beaumont,” the baritone voice of Dr. Reid immediately piped up.</p><p>Arno silently nodded, eyeing up the other Ekon carefully.</p><p>Jonathan had rolled his fine sleeves back and went to shake the younger hunter’s hand at once before turning and gently nodding towards the other vampire in the room.</p><p>“And you must be Mr. Cormac O’Connell,” he continued, ignoring the way that Cormac stood upright and taller, moving closer to him and getting right up in his face.</p><p>“Ah, you’re that handsome little thing I bloodied up in the sewers,” Cormac drawled, and when Geoffrey went to move for the doctor, Jonathan merely held up a hand at him to stop.</p><p>“You are an incredible specimen, if I do say so myself. Stronger than any vampire I have ever come across. An entirely new breed of power,” Jonathan told him, and Cormac stepped away from him now with a pleased smile plastered to his face.</p><p>“Why did you want us here,” the younger Ekon demanded, holding out his hands in some sort of peaceful gesture. “Here we are. What do you want?”</p><p>Jonathan gestured towards the table. Cormac pulled up a chair to sit by Arno at the head of the table on one side, while Geoffrey did the same to sit beside Jonathan at the other end.</p><p>“I hear that you were sent here to stop the skal epidemic that is flaring up again in London,” Jonathan flatly questioned. Straight to the point, he always was.</p><p>“And I hear that you stopped the previous skal epidemic that plagued London,” Cormac responded. “Well, you didn’t do as good of a job as you thought you did.”</p><p>Geoffrey seemed to growl at that, clenching his hands into fists at the sneer that Cormac shot at him. He relaxed however, when Jonathan threw back his head and laughed.</p><p>“I suppose not,” the older vampire replied. “Though, I get the strange feeling that perhaps I was not supposed to be the one to end it.”</p><p>“What do you mean?” Arno spoke up this time, drawing himself closer to the Ekon beside him. “What does this have to do with Cormac? Geoffrey said you think that you two may be related.”</p><p>Cormac’s sharp blue eyes never left Jonathan’s, and the doctor merely nodded at that.</p><p>“I will spare you a lot of the details about how I figured out what life as an Ekon was like,” he slowly began. “My maker was a mystery to me for quite some time. I was born into plague—both the influenza one and the skal one. My maker had created me to stop the skal epidemic that first plagued London just a few years ago. I figured it through these visions of my maker that I would have. He would come to me, a powerful avatar, and call me his champion.”</p><p>“That’s what happened to Cormac,” Arno said, voice barely a whisper as the younger vampire tensed slightly beside him. Their hands quickly found each other and their fingers intertwined from underneath the table.</p><p>“What did you have to do for him?” Cormac asked, voice lower and more serious than ever before.</p><p>“I had to defeat the Red Queen,” Jonathan gently answered. “She is an ancient vampire—the mother of all vampires. She slumbers beneath London and is supposed to awaken every few centuries, where she causes all sorts of calamity and plague. I stopped her in the sewers years ago and I thought that she would just go back to sleep, as she has always done. Our maker always produces a champion to rout her whenever it is time for her to awaken.”</p><p>Both Cormac and Arno were silent for several minutes, and Jonathan allowed them both time to collect their thoughts as he reached out and took Geoffrey’s hand in his own. Cormac was the first of them to speak.</p><p>“And that’s me this time?” He questioned. “I’m supposed to be the one to stop her down in the sewers? That’s why that old vampire attacked me—made me the thing I am?”</p><p>“I know what you’re thinking,” Jonathan quickly interjected. “I didn’t ask for this.”</p><p>“I didn’t,” Cormac agreed.</p><p>“You’ve lost family and friends, and you can’t go back to your home now because of what our maker, Myrddin, did to you,” Jonathan continued, and Cormac just looked down at the floor now, seemingly miserable. He gave a weak nod, so Jonathan kept talking.</p><p>“You think that you’re just a kid, the youngest vampire to be around now, and a kid you shall remain for eternity. A part of you is scared of failure because of all the lives on the line. A part of you knows you have to do this because of the danger the Red Queen and her skals are. To save those who still live and to have peace for those who have died already. But you feel as though you have no clue where to start. You’ve only just now gotten control over your vampiric powers, over your hunger that will never rest or get any easier to deal with. You feel alone in this fight.</p><p>“But Cormac,” Jonathan softly spoke, making the younger Ekon glance up at him finally. “You aren’t alone. I promise you. I will help you—I have already faced her once. Together, we will persevere and put her to sleep correctly this time. You won’t fail, Cormac. None of Myrddin’s children have ever failed.”</p><p>Cormac gazed over at Arno, who gave him a tiny smile.</p><p>“I’ll be there with you, too,” he told the vampire. “I care for you far too much to let you be walk in there on your own.”</p><p>Geoffrey gave an awkward cough before shrugging his shoulders.</p><p>“You’re a real pain in the arse, O’Connell, but I’ll also be there with you all. Ain’t no way in hell that I’m missing this again,” he grumbled.</p><p>Cormac scratched the back of his neck nervously and chuckled.</p><p>“Wow, you all should be in my corner when I box,” he joked. “That’s some pep talk.”</p><p>“We can do this, Cormac, I promise,” Jonathan assured. “I will set to work in making the antidote again, so we all shall have some for when we go down there. So that she cannot make a Disaster of this yet again. Geoffrey, dear, I will need some more of King Arthur’s blood.”</p><p>Arno looked to Cormac, eyes widened, and Cormac shrugged.</p><p>“Eh, I was shite at science,” he said with a laugh. “Let’s go home and leave them to it. I trust them.” Arno nodded and stood from the table with Cormac.</p><p>“You know where to find us,” Cormac called, giving a slight wave over his shoulder as he and Arno headed back out towards the parlor to go home for the day that was rapidly approaching.</p><p>“Until next time, fellow Ekon,” Jonathan loudly responded.</p><p>Perhaps this unlikely bunch could do more than what has ever been done. For the sake of the city, Jonathan hoped this would be the case. He wanted to see the Red Queen gone—for good this time.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Born of Blood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Cormac finally confronts his maker and learns the truth of what he was destined to do just before running off to complete his final task. Secrets are spilled and a vampire's worst fears and anger come to light.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This took me a bit because I haven't played the game in a hot minute and had to actually go back and watch some playthroughs just to see how and what Myrddin spoke like. Apologies. :p</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had taken three days before Geoffrey McCullum had called upon Arno and Cormac. Apparently, Doctor Reid had finished the antidote and was prepared to go into the sewers to face the Red Queen as soon as possible. Tonight, was the night, it seemed, so the four men had loaded themselves with a dose of the doctor’s antidote before strapping various weapons and blood vials to themselves.</p><p>“The sooner she goes back to sleep, the better for London,” Reid had murmured, as the other three men silently nodded.</p><p>No matter how many times McCullum had been down in the sewers, the act of splashing around in murky water and through sheer darkness never became easier. Especially not after passing by the chamber where he had almost lost his life previously. He remembered that bloody room so vividly, and the fact that if Cormac had not found him when he did and dragged him out of there, he would not be standing here tonight.</p><p>“It’s quiet,” Arno muttered, pressing closer to Cormac, who tightened his grip around the hunter’s hand. “I just thought there’d be…you know, more vampires? Where’s this skal horde that Geoffrey mentioned before. Did you drain them all, Cormac?”</p><p>“Fuck no,” the Ekon drawled. “I wouldn’t hunt down here willingly even if it were the last supply of blood left on Earth. Shit’s nasty in this place.”</p><p>Arno could hardly stop the nervous chuckle that escaped him, while Geoffrey mimicked the other couple and took Jonathan’s hand in his own.</p><p>“It’s getting darker,” he grumbled. “You vamps need to be our eyes.”</p><p>“Stay close to me,” the doctor seemed to hiss, tensing slightly. “Something is ahead, and it likely knows we are here.”</p><p>Both Arno and Geoffrey reached for their swords, as Cormac hunched over slightly in preparation to pounce like the wild predator that he truly was. The damp tunnel seemed to open up just ahead, but the floor dropped off into pools of runoff water going down the drains. There was a narrow strip that the party could continue walking across, and Cormac stepped forth to take the lead. The moment he stepped forward onto that new platform, the entire world around him seemed to slow.</p><p>He turned to see both McCullum and Arno collapse to the floor, hands violently slapping to their ears as if trying to drown something out. Only he and Reid remained unaffected by the dramatic shifts in their environment that was now occurring.</p><p>Cormac turned again, suddenly seeing the walls now painted a bloody color, and further up the platform a strange, dark apparition appeared before him. His stomach lurched and he growled lowly, a display meant to hide the anxiety that now rocked through his core.</p><p>“Go to him,” Jonathan hissed. “He’s here for you.”</p><p><em>Myrddin,</em> Cormac realized, tensing slightly as he stepped forth onto the platform and began walking towards this mysterious being. Arno had tried to yell for Cormac, but he was still hunched over on the floor, and Doctor Reid moved to go soothe the man.</p><p><em>Sorry babe, but I’m really not like you anymore,</em> Cormac bitterly thought, just as he came to stare into the eyes of the creature that he now knew to be his maker.</p><p>“Take not a step further, child, for you are unprepared,” his voice seemed so soothing, and yet it threatened something much darker lurking beneath the surface of his pointed words. Cormac actually sneered.</p><p>“I was wondering when you’d turn up again,” the Ekon coolly said. “What? Hadn’t gotten enough of me the night you attacked me in the street?”</p><p>He uttered a growl before continuing.</p><p>“Well, here I am, maker,” he spat. “What do you want from me?”</p><p>“Desist, child. You cannot confront the monstrosity unleashed upon this land without due preparation,” this ancient beast responded. “I shall not allow it.”</p><p>Cormac actually threw back his head and barked out a sharp laugh at that.</p><p>“You bit me and then dumped me alone into this world,” his voice practically growled. “How in the bloody hell was I supposed to know about this monstrosity that you speak of or how to prepare for it? I’m tired of your bullshit riddles. Answer me now, and just spit it out already.”</p><p>“My words have been as clear as crystal lakes, my child,” the elder vampire answered, sounding a tad bit detached. “You seem unwilling to drink—to listen, and to learn.”</p><p>He trailed off and seemed to gaze across the room, his eyes meeting the eyes of Doctor Reid, and he knowingly shook his head.</p><p>“It seems history repeats itself much sooner than expected,” Myrddin murmured, and Cormac rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Then why did you choose me? Surely, you knew I would run into Reid here, in guiding me to this town,” Cormac questioned. “You had to know he would offer his services and experience again.”</p><p>“Jonathan was chosen previously for only he could provide a modern scientific answer to this ancient, mystical threat,” his maker replied.</p><p>“Modern scientific answer?” Cormac dully repeated.</p><p>“I am a physician, a scientist,” Reid spoke up from across the room. “As he told me before, this was my area of expertise and I could create the antidote to help solve this problem.”</p><p>“And this ancient threat being the Red Queen you told me about?” Cormac demanded, looking between Jonathan and their shared maker at this time.</p><p>“The blood of hate. Vessel of the wrath of the Goddess. When she awakens, a Disaster will be brought into this world, for she is hunger and anger,” Myrddin answered.</p><p>“But there is no Disaster this time,” Jonathan pressed. “No woman has been corrupted enough yet. No woman has been taken. There was no trail of blood to follow this time. It was just already here.”</p><p>Cormac practically groaned aloud at this.</p><p>“Look, I don’t care what happened this time around versus what didn’t,” he snapped now. “I am here to stop this Red Goddess of hate or whatever, and then go home. I don’t have time for this bullshit.”</p><p>“I have heard you, but be weary,” Myrddin insisted. “This situation has metamorphosed into an apocalypse. Born from, drenched in, and driven by the blood of hate.”</p><p>“I only want to know how to stop this epidemic and save the city,” Cormac finally replied, shaking his head quickly.</p><p>“I assume you already have the protection against its poisonous kiss?” The ancient vampire knowingly inquired, and Cormac nodded, gesturing back towards Dr. Reid.</p><p>“He made the antidote,” Cormac responded. “It worked for him last time, so it’ll work for us this time.”</p><p>Myrddin seemed to nod at this.</p><p>“Your final task awaits you at the end of these tunnels. I’ve known for ages that you were worthy of this challenge, my champion bittersweet,” he seemed to proudly say, and the younger vampire grimaced.</p><p>“You turned me,” Cormac growled. “I had to leave behind everything that I ever knew and loved because I can’t be around them like this. I have only caused problems like this. Fuck, there’s a guard dedicated to killing things that are like me, and too soon…”</p><p>He trailed off, voice softening and turning to glance at Arno who still remained upon the grimy floor across the tunnel.</p><p>“I will lose the one I love,” he finished, voice barely a whisper. “He will die because I cannot. And I don’t know how I’ll go on without him.”</p><p>He turned and snarled at the elder vampire, baring his fangs and hissing before stepping past the creature.</p><p>“I am <em>not</em> your champion.” Cormac leapt upward and landed silently onto the ledge behind Myrddin and he stalked away in anger, leaving Jonathan staring at his maker curiously.</p><p>“History really has repeated itself,” the doctor lowly commented.</p><p>“Very soon he will come to know that sacrifice is sometimes necessary,” Myrddin quietly said. “I do understand the grudge a child bears towards his father and mother. He will be brave and carry on, as you did before. Go with him, help guide him, for he is still blind to our ways.”</p><p>Without another word from anyone, Myrddin silently disappeared in black and red tendrils of smoke. As the haze and noise of a pounding heartbeat dissipated, Arno and Geoffrey both rolled up onto their knees and exhaled heavily.</p><p>“What in the hell was that?” McCullum snarled, standing slowly and rubbing at his temples.</p><p>Arno immediately leapt up and sprinted over to where the ancient vampire had once stood beside his lover.</p><p>“Where’s Cormac?” He demanded, turning and giving a wild look to the doctor.</p><p>“We need to go,” Jonathan murmured. “Cormac leapt up there and took off to go stop the Red Queen.”</p><p>He put his arms around Arno, who squirmed in his grasp in response.</p><p>“Hold your breath,” the doctor growled at him, and when Arno did as he was asked, the vampire leapt through the air with him and landed on the ledge. He then jumped back down and did the same thing with Geoffrey.</p><p>“Damnit,” Arno swore lowly under his breath and unsheathed his sword, as Jonathan hurried through the tunnel with Geoffrey on his heels.</p><p>The three of them raced ahead in hopes of finding Cormac before he blindly clashed with the Red Goddess.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Cormac</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>At last, the fight against a wrathful Queen and the champions of an Elder vampire. Cormac makes a sacrifice in attempt to rid the world of the Red Queen forever. Is a victory really worth it if you lose the thing closest to your heart?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Please, Doctor Reid, please get to Cormac. We’re only slowing you down. Get to him and make sure he’s okay. We’ll catch up.”</p><p>Arno’s desperate words still hung heavy in the air, even though Jonathan had left both hunters behind several minutes ago. He was moving with superhuman speed, flitting down the narrow tunnels and moving towards the metallic smell of blood that permeated the dark space further ahead. The thought of the other Ekon, fearless and furious as ever, thoughtlessly racing off on his own hit the doctor wrong. He scowled, turning the corner and freezing at the injured sound that echoed from the chamber ahead.</p><p><em>What a reckless idiot,</em> he thought, throwing himself into the room and shadow leaping to place himself in front of the redhead that had toppled to the floor, splashing back into the pool of blood without any sort of grace or tact.</p><p>To the boyish vampire’s credit, Cormac was back on his feet almost instantly, pawing at his eyes to clear the blood from his lids and licking his lips clean. Jonathan moved from his side, completely silent and landing behind the red avatar of their enraged Queen. His claws sliced through her, piercing her backside and leaving what appeared to be the effect of a bleeding wound.</p><p>“Only claws and weapons,” the doctor called out, leaping through shadows and reappearing at Cormac’s side. “Blood attacks won’t work.”</p><p>Cormac wrinkled his nose in confusion.</p><p>“The fuck are you on about?” He snarled. This stubborn Ekon put his head down and charged the Red Queen at once.</p><p>Cormac did not move as swiftly as Jonathan did, and he did so by slapping his feet loudly through the puddles of blood and against the solid floor. However, it did not seem that the Queen was making an effort to move out of the charging vampire’s way. Instead, she let him slam into her, and she let out a disgusted sound indicating her surprise as his arms somehow found purchase at her shoulders and he took her along with him as he barreled across the chamber.</p><p><em>What?</em> Jonathan’s eyes widened. <em>He can just grab her so easily?</em></p><p>Cormac practically roared as he stopped on the other side of the room, pulling back and launching the Red Queen straight through the wall. The racket that the tons of stone made as it toppled to the floor and the wall seemed to cave inward on itself was atrocious, but even that paled in comparison to Cormac’s infuriated growls and animalistic grunts. The younger Ekon leapt back across the room in a flurry of black smoke, stopping beside the doctor, who still stared at him in awe.</p><p>Cormac was breathing heavily through his open mouth, fangs flashing wildly as he settled himself.</p><p>“What?” He lowly demanded. “I may not be fast like you, and I may not be able to do your fancy blood powers or whatever other shite you do. But I’m pretty fucking strong. Ain’t my first time knocking someone through a wall.”</p><p>“You…” Jonathan broke off, trying to find words to describe the miracle he had just witnessed. “You never evolved? You know no blood powers?”</p><p>“And I don’t fucking need them,” Cormac snarled, squaring up towards the ruins left at the end of the chamber as it seemed that the Red Queen had finally gathered herself up and began stepping through all the rubble.</p><p>“There’s three more walls here and a ceiling,” Cormac hissed, voice slipping into that monstrous lower octave he had when he became angry. “Wanna go for another round?”</p><p>"Is this a dream, my child? Am I awake? Is this anger I feel? Is this wrath?” The Queen’s voice flared across the chamber, filling it in sickly sweet tendrils of sound.</p><p>“You already said that!” Cormac yelled, shadow jumping across the room to grab a large chunk of stone from the debris and lifting it over his head to hurl at her.</p><p>This time, the Red Queen gracefully dodged the incoming attack. She leapt across the room and caught Cormac by the throat, even stopping his left hand that he attempted to reach back and swing at her.</p><p>“Oh, how infinitely, how intensely, how irredeemably are you are going to suffer now, my child,” she seemed to say to Cormac in a singsong pitch.</p><p>Before she could act, however, she was cut off—stuttering and grunting while releasing her hold on the younger Ekon. A large lump of stone hit her directly in the back, as Reid had leapt behind her to attack while she was distracted with Cormac. Cormac wasted no time, pouncing at the Red Queen and sinking fangs deeply into her exposed throat.</p><p>“No! Don’t drink!” The older Ekon screamed, just as Cormac released and spit up a mouthful of blood onto the floor.</p><p>“Gods, you taste foul,” Cormac growled, throwing a harsh punch straight to the bloody avatar’s face. When she reared back, tripped up by the sudden ferocity of the incoming blows, both Jonathan and Cormac leapt back across the chamber and landed near each other.</p><p>“I don’t know how you are doing this,” Jonathan lowly started. “Grabbing her, throwing her, drinking from her…but you better stop trying right now. You cannot drink her blood. She has the Blood of Hate. We know it festers in human women, to taint them into becoming a Disaster. I know that it can be spread from vampires and it makes them go mad as their hunger is amplified. It could possibly kill you.”</p><p>Cormac rolled his eyes.</p><p>“I’ve never said this before, but I didn’t swallow. Are you fucking happy now?” He snapped, ignoring the sharp look that the doctor gave him in response.</p><p>“Quit playing games,” Reid warned, as the Queen finally stood upright and uttered a piercing screech. He prepared to leap forward just as an aggrieved cry came from the tunnel behind him.</p><p>Both Ekons whirled to see the panicked faces of Geoffrey and Arno as they raced each other into the area. Their eyes popped wide as they saw the new threat in the chamber ahead, just as they turned to battle whatever had been chasing them. Arno had his sword raised, while McCullum had his crossbow strung tight and ready to unload. That tunnel behind them suddenly filled with miniature, bloody figures.</p><p>“What the fuck are these things?” McCullum growled, shooting several bolts into the bloody avatar that was nearest to him before it dropped face first into the blood and dissolved into it.</p><p>“Keep them at bay,” the doctor ordered. “We’ll take care of the Red Queen.”</p><p>Cormac leapt again slightly before Jonathan did, each of them landing on either side of their foe. Jonathan tore into her once more with claws, causing her to stagger back into Cormac’s outstretched and waiting arms. He hauled her form up and tossed her aside with ease, powerfully flinging her straight into the floor to allow Jonathan to throw a few extra scratches into her backside. As blood seemed to flow endlessly from the deep gashes that Dr. Reid had left behind in the Queen, Cormac swallowed thickly. His throat suddenly felt more parched than ever before, while his gums and fangs ached dreadfully with a familiar, but unquenchable, sense of longing.</p><p>Cormac’s dark pupils were blown wide and he took a few steps back in warning. He emitted a small whine and physically panted like an animal as he gazed back down at the bloody site before him.</p><p>“Reid,” he grunted, snapping his jaw shut and shaking his head furiously. “I can’t. I want…I need—”</p><p>There was something sounding deep from within his mind, singing praises and practically screaming at him to drink deeply from the flowing fountain. A tremor rocked through his body, and Cormac tossed back his head and shrieked eagerly.</p><p>“No!” Jonathan yelled, shadow leaping at Cormac just as Cormac leapt at the Queen’s still prone form. He missed, barely scraping a hand along the soft fabric of Cormac’s bloodstained shirt, while the younger Ekon landed perfectly with a knee digging into the blood avatar’s backside.</p><p>His fangs met the back of the Red Queen’s neck in an awkward angle, but enough for him to tear into her.</p><p>Arno and Geoffrey were clashing violently with the smaller foes that spawned from the Red Queen herself, but when Arno heard that sound that he knew came from his lover, he turned momentarily away while and while distracted, the avatar before him slammed him to the ground.</p><p>“Cormac!” He cried, hissing and writhing as the Queen’s lesser avatar ripped into his shoulders. Fortunately for him, McCullum had been paying attention to each avatar in the room, and he unloaded the rest of his remaining bolts into the avatar that had Arno pinned and she squealed before liquifying into the blood around them. No words were exchanged, though Arno nodded gratefully to the older hunter, who merely grunted and pulled his sword to face the red moving targets around him.</p><p>Arno sensed something moving quickly towards him, and he whirled in time to see one scarlet being pouncing towards him, ready to slice straight through his throat. He closed his eyes and backed up into the wall behind him, exhaling slowly and swallowing the dread that sunk into his gut like lead. His end was incredibly near; his time alive was up. His profession that was doomed to be the early end of him had grotesquely caught him.</p><p>When seconds passed where he did not feel the quick impalement that would be his untimely demise, he finally opened his eyes to see the lesser avatar standing before him. She appeared to be frozen in place, where she remained for several more moments before she finally splashed into the ground and disappeared. Arno’s eyes widened curiously, as he glanced around the room and saw the rest of the smaller avatars melting into the puddle of blood altogether. McCullum, who was mid swing with his sword, completely missed. His blade swiped blindly as the avatar before him dissolved before he had the chance to strike.</p><p>“The fuck?” He gruffly snarled, looking across the room to where the doctor and Cormac had been standing.</p><p>There was Cormac, crouched low over something that could not be seen from McCullum or Arno’s points of view, and then there was Dr. Reid, clutching wildly at Cormac’s shoulder and attempting to haul him back. Arno moved without thinking, charging at the older Ekon who was still yelling madly at Cormac.</p><p>“Cormac, stop! You could die!” The doctor shouted, and Arno suddenly shoved at the elder Ekon.</p><p>“Arno,” Jonathan hissed in surprise, toppling over and splashing into blood pool.</p><p>“Cormac!” Arno cried, ignoring the shocked doctor before him. He dropped to his knees behind his Ekon, realizing suddenly what his lover had been doing. “Cormac, stop! You can’t! Let go!”</p><p>The more the Ekon drank from that spraying crimson spout, the more disgusting his heaving breaths and pleasured sounds became. He eventually sat back, as the last of the Red Queen seemed to just evaporate from his hands—her bloody form completely drained. Cormac panted heavily, eyes an ugly, livid red shade.</p><p>“Cormac?” Arno questioned, reaching out but gasping loudly as Cormac turned swiftly and revealed the changed, sickly face of a well-fed vampire.</p><p><em>No, this is Mary all over again,</em> Jonathan realized, as cold terror seeped deeply into him. He could practically see Cormac tearing out Arno's throat moments before it happened.</p><p>He fortunately was faster this time—prepared for Cormac’s jump.</p><p>Jonathan now had pinned Arno to the wall all the way across the room, turning to shield him from the lunging Ekon’s grasp.</p><p>“Geoffrey, get back!” Dr. Reid barked out. “Prepare to defend yourself! He drained her. She’s our source—the source of the Blood of Hate!”</p><p>A strangled cry tore from Arno’s throat as he watched McCullum pull his sword from its sheath.</p><p>“No! Don’t hurt him!” The younger hunter wailed, suddenly being flung through the pool of blood again, but thrown towards the entrance of the chamber.</p><p>“Get him out of here, Geoffrey!” The older Ekon hissed, now caught in a tight lock with the deranged Ekon. He held onto Cormac with all of his strength, but he bit his lip bloody and exhaled an agonized groan at the way his arm seemed to crunch from under Cormac’s vicelike grip.</p><p>Before Arno could stumble to his feet and make a break for Cormac, he was shoved roughly against the wall nearest the chamber entrance where they had come in from by a brutishly large pair of hands.</p><p>“Arno, go,” McCullum growled low. “I don’t want to have to hurt you. We need to leave. We’re human and it’s not safe.”</p><p>“Leave me,” Arno’s voice was not even characteristic of his usual voice. His strong, confident tone had been replaced with something pitiful and childlike. He tried to yell at Reid again, to scream for his lover and beg the older Ekon not to kill him, but his voice cracked sharply and the noise barely made it out of his own throat.</p><p>McCullum’s hand gripped the back of Arno’s overcoat and forced him to his feet. Arno’s knees buckled and threatened to give out again, making McCullum swear lowly and scoop the younger man up to throw him over a shoulder.</p><p>“No! Cormac!” Arno cried, slamming a fist against the older hunter’s back and squirming.</p><p>“He’ll accidentally kill you like this, Arno,” McCullum said, shaking his head in his own sad sort of disappointment.</p><p>“We always knew that was a risk, damnit!” Arno sobbed, still trying to writhe his way out of Geoffrey grasp. “Please, let me go. I have to be with him. I don’t care if he kills me. Reid’s going to kill him—I won’t let him be alone.”</p><p>“Cormac!” The younger hunter’s voice broke off in a wounded scream again, and his whole body shook wildly from the sharp cracking that seemed to tear from his chest. It felt as if his entire torso was about to come apart.</p><p>Arno’s fist connected harshly with Geoffrey’s right flank, causing the older man to double over and drop Arno over his backside. Arno scrambled, only halfway upright, as he attempted to run back up the tunnel. McCullum shook the pain from himself and immediately went after the hunter, catching him and grappling him to the ground.</p><p><em>Fuck,</em> McCullum thought, his own heart constricting at the mad animalistic cries that Arno was emitting. He knew he would be exactly the same if it were Reid in there that had to be put down like a rabid dog. He also would not care. He would want to be there even if it meant that Reid could possibly kill him.</p><p>“We’ll wait here,” the older hunter finally conceded, cursing himself inwardly. Though he desperately wanted to believe that Reid would be the one to walk up that tunnel to tell them that it was over and Cormac O’Connell was at rest now, there was still a chance that Cormac slipped from his grasp first, or worse—that Cormac killed Reid in his madness and then came for them next and would make his way up to the city. “We’ll wait for Jonathan to come back.”</p><p>“I want Cormac,” Arno miserably mumbled over and over. “God, McCullum, help—I can’t breathe.”</p><p>He was gasping heavily and still shaking all over.</p><p>“I can’t breathe,” he repeated, as McCullum shifted positions to try and awkwardly cradle the younger hunter to see if he could soothe the man.</p><p>“I’m dying,” Arno softly whimpered, tears and snot streaming down his face. “Reid’s going to kill him, but I’m the one who is dying.”</p><p>“Fuck, Arno,” McCullum said, voice barely a whisper. “I’m so fucking sorry.”</p><p>He held the man in his arms, allowing Arno to cry and whimper his lover’s name in defeat for the next several minutes. Finally, after what felt like a small eternity with his own heart breaking for the other hunter, Geoffrey felt a familiar presence heading towards them from further up the tunnel. He tried to stand slowly, to pull and encourage Arno to stand with him, and he stopped short as the doctor entered his sights.</p><p>Jonathan was alone.</p><p>Arno collapsed back to the floor, curling into himself and bending his head as the broken sobs began again. Jonathan quickly lowered himself to the floor beside the hunter, wrapping slim arms around the man and pulling him close into an embrace.</p><p>“Arno, please breathe,” he urgently tried to soothe.</p><p>“Don’t touch me,” Arno moaned, aggressively shoving at the vampire. “You killed him. God, you killed him and I hate you!”</p><p>“Cormac still lives, Arno.”</p><p>“What?” Geoffrey spoke, as Arno immediately froze. Jonathan sighed deeply.</p><p>“Cormac is alive,” he calmly explained. “I exhausted him—or the Blood did. I don’t really know. Eventually, he just went limp in my arms and passed out. Strangely enough, his undead heart still beats. It was going wild after he drank from the Red Queen, but now that he is asleep, it looks as though he has a living human’s heart beating within his chest.”</p><p>“So, what do we do with him?” Geoffrey sternly questioned, as Arno stood slowly and stared at the doctor.</p><p>“We need to move him,” Jonathan flatly answered. “Quickly, before he wakes. I don’t know how he’s going to be once he does. We can take him to one of my safehouses and we can chain him up there, so that if he does wake up and is still going to be in a blood rage, he won’t immediately harm anyone. I don’t want to just leave him down here in the event some skal or sewer beast finds him while he’s out and defenseless.”</p><p>McCullum nodded, moving with the doctor to go back and collect Cormac’s slumbering body. Arno waited until Dr. Reid came back carrying the other Ekon, and he exhaled softly at the sight of Cormac’s now peaceful visage.</p><p><em>Will I ever forget that haunting face he gave me?</em> Arno found himself thinking as he slowly began following the pair in front of him. <em>I forgive him already, though.</em></p><p>The walk out of the sewers was uneventful in comparison to their adventure getting down to that chamber and the events that occurred within it. Jonathan shadow jumped up some rickety stairs out in one of the many deserted city squares, pushing open the red door that was illuminated by a flickering bulb hanging just outside the door. A few moments passed before the doctor exited the loft and leapt back to the street where Geoffrey and Arno stood.</p><p>“Let’s give him some time,” Jonathan gently told the Arno, who merely nodded. “I don’t know precisely what the Blood of Hate will do to him. I will keep an eye on him in the meantime.”</p><p>Arno remained silent, as Dr. Reid leaned in closer to him.</p><p>“I will not harm him, Arno,” Jonathan assured, and Arno had to bite his quivering lip to keep himself from crying again. “I want to see to it that he gets better. Even if he doesn’t, I will work tirelessly to find a cure for it. I had already started working on one years ago when I found out my own dear friend had it.”</p><p>Arno weakly nodded, turning towards the street that he would have to take to get back to his own loft.</p><p>
  <em>The bed is going to be so empty without him tonight.</em>
</p><p>He winced at the thought.</p><p>“Thanks,” he finally murmured, pushing past the doctor and the older hunter. “You know where to find me if he changes.”</p><p>He disappeared up the empty street and into the silent hours that were inching closer to dawn.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Always Vampires</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>What will become of our poor Cormac? As loose ends are slowly tied together, this story seems to finally wind down. Thanks for sticking along for the ride, guys. Y'all are the best. Wouldn't have gotten here without your encouragement and kind words. ~Aries</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fun fact, to educate along with the stupid joke near the end of this chapter, condoms have an insanely long and old history (pun? maybe?). Since early B.C. times people were using animal skin or intestines as makeshift contraceptives. By the 15th century, some cultures were using tortoise shells and were attempting to add animal horns to their contraceptive methods (ouch, not ribbed for her pleasure, just ouch). In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered rubber vulcanization, the method that eventually led to the making of the first rubber condom in 1855. Once latex came to be in the 1920s, this led to the ability to mass produce condoms, leading to the eventual growth in that industry and development that we know and have today (Maude, 2020). This story is set several years after the game's initial events, so it would wind up being in the 1920s. So, yeah. Condom joke would have landed during the time period of this story. It wasn't entirely a wild anachronism.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>I commanded you to drink from the fountain of Hate, and so you did, my child. </em>
</p><p>“I must drink,” the Ekon murmured, attempting to roll over. He stopped halfway, arms held stiffly in place as something cold and hard dug into the flesh of his wrists and a metallic rattle echoed from somewhere further off.</p><p>“Drink,” his voice cracked. “Always drink, always feed. Always need the blood.”</p><p>His mind reeled; head still foggy as he attempted to piece things together for himself.</p><p>Everything had been a blur.</p><p>He remembered the other vampire in the sewers—chasing after him as he charged towards the Red Queen. That clever Ekon had been the one who insisted that he did not drink from their bloody Queen. Memories of that siren call that lured him to her throat struck him hard, as he recalled the way the other vampire’s claws had made her bleed like cattle for slaughter.</p><p><em>I drained her,</em> he remembered. <em>I drank from her when I shouldn’t have. Then what?</em></p><p>He groaned despondently, as his head throbbed and he attempted to swallow what felt like sandpaper in his throat. The need to feed again swelled within him, burning down his gullet like a white-hot brand. He attempted to sit up and tugged harder at the manacles around him, and he slurred his swears in frustration when the realization dawned on him that he was too weak in his current state to break free. He had to feed if he was going to escape.</p><p><em>What did I do?</em> He wondered, as the dread his intuition flashed at him began sinking low in his gut.</p><p>The door across the room opened, squealing loudly on its hinges, making the Ekon recoil against the chains and flash his fangs at whoever the intruder was. He was in no mood for visitors, or worse.</p><p>“Cormac?” a low, but somewhat familiar voice reached him. “You’re awake.”</p><p>The redhaired Ekon did not respond, sinking back against the wall and remaining curled up in his initial defenseless position.</p><p>“Eyes are still red, face still appears just as pale as before, and there are still heavy, dark spots beneath the lower lids,” the other Ekon commented, mentally cataloguing his physical observations and ignoring the way the vampire on the floor hissed in warning as he approached.</p><p>“How are you feeling?” He questioned, and this time the shackled Ekon groaned.</p><p>“Like shite,” he croaked in response, to which the older vampire nodded.</p><p>“I’m sure you are rather hungry,” the doctor lowly commented. “I shall fetch some rats for you.”</p><p>Cormac remained staring at the floor in front of his long legs.</p><p>“I feel as if I’ve had enough blood to last a lifetime,” he finally whispered, staring up suddenly at the other Ekon near the doorway.</p><p>“Reid,” he breathed, just as the concluding missing pieces of his memory slid into place. “Reid…what have I done?”</p><p>“I believe you have ended the Red Queen, Cormac,” Dr. Reid firmly responded. “Though it was in a rather unorthodox way and has likely cost you a very large part of yourself. I believe the Queen is no more.”</p><p>Cormac pondered that for a moment before the doctor shut the door behind him and stared closer at the vampire on the ground.</p><p>“I worry for you, Cormac,” the older Ekon bluntly stated. “You have been unconscious for several days and nights now. The last I recall of you when you were awake was that you had attempted to harm several of your close acquaintances in a blood rage. Yet here you are, seemingly sane again. I wonder if this will last, and if not, then for how long?”</p><p>“Arno,” Cormac exhaled the name as it was practically punched out of him from the tight lurch in his stomach.</p><p>“Mr. Beaumont is doing well, all things considered,” Reid informed. “He is beside himself with anxiety over you, but he was unharmed during all of that. He merely sustained a few scrapes and cuts from the Red Queen’s lesser avatars. I tended to his wounds and he is doing well, physically.”</p><p>“I want to see him,” Cormac immediately demanded. “I need to see that he is alright.”</p><p>“I think that would be unwise,” the doctor answered pointblank. When Cormac stared at him in surprise, red eyes wide with his eyebrows worried, Dr. Reid sighed.</p><p>“He was the first person that you went after during your bloodlust,” Jonathan explained. “I’m not saying he triggered it, but he may induce a more vicious response out of you if you cannot keep your thirst under control. For both of your sakes, I believe it unwise for him to be exposed to that again. You would never forgive yourself if you hurt him whenever you came to again, and he may lose what little hope he has left of ever having you back as you were.”</p><p>Cormac growled in frustration, rocking back to lean his head against the wall.</p><p>“So, what? You keep me chained here and you’ll just toss some rats in here to keep my hunger at bay until what, Reid?” He questioned, “Until you think I’m okay to be unchained? Then you stalk me when I’m free and if I slip up, you and your hunter end me on the spot. Or until you think I can’t be saved and decide to put me out of my misery?”</p><p>“I don’t have the answers, Cormac,” Jonathan responded, tired voice making him sound much older all of a sudden. “I am just doing what I think would be best for everyone at this point. It is apparent that you drained the Red Queen completely, consuming all of the Blood of Hate. How you tolerated it is beyond me, but how it will affect you in the future is something that I also cannot say. You may learn to keep it in check, but you also will always have it as a part of you.”</p><p>He stopped short, glancing at the ground and shaking his head.</p><p>“My dear friend Elizabeth,” he quietly started. “She had the Blood of Hate within her veins, infected from a powerful, ancient immortal—one who is conveniently also the progeny of our shared Maker. It was her misused blood that started the last skal epidemic that slowly worked into crescendo of a Disaster that was born of wrath.</p><p>“We tried very hard for several months to devise a cure, or at least something that could neutralize the effects within her,” Reid continued. “Alas, it was to no avail. My dear Elizabeth lost hope and she took her life to avoid causing another Disaster.”</p><p>Cormac remained silent.</p><p><em>So, that’s it?</em> He bitterly thought. <em>That’s my choice? Stay put and in hiding until Reid can somehow come up with a cure for me, or kill myself? So that my blood will never cause another tragedy upon the world? Fucking perfect. </em></p><p>
  <em>I didn’t even get to tell him that I love him. </em>
</p><p>The thought struck him square in the chest, taking breath away from him that he did not even need, and it made the young Ekon weakly tremble.</p><p>“So, this is my punishment to bear?” He queried, and the doctor shrugged. When the older vampire opened his mouth to reply, he was cut abruptly short as the room seemed to fade around the two of them. The sound of a thrumming heartbeat seemed to build, as the walls ran red with blood.</p><p>“No, my child,” a strong voice echoed throughout the darkness of the room. “It is mine.”</p><p>“Myrddin,” Reid murmured, watching as the elder entity materialized in his primeval, gory form.</p><p>Cormac merely grimaced.</p><p>“Leave me alone,” he blearily replied. “Haven’t you fucked up my life enough?”</p><p>“We all must learn that sacrifices must be made at times, my child,” the elder vampire chided. “I thought by now you would have learned.”</p><p>Reid shifted from his position, turning to face his Maker instead.</p><p>“What has become of Cormac?” The doctor probed. “How will the Red Queen’s blood affect him?”</p><p>“It won’t,” Myrddin plainly answered, making both Ekons blink in stunned stillness.</p><p>“Why?” Reid pressed, and that olden being turned to move closer to Cormac.</p><p>“I made him as my champion this time for this precise reason,” he lowly retorted. “Because he can handle the tainted blood. He can grapple with the wrath and stand victorious in the end. It shall not stain him in the way that it has others. It is nullified within him.”</p><p>Cormac attempted to sit upright as much as the chains around his extremities would allow and he snarled.</p><p>“Speak plainly,” he hissed. “No more fucking riddles. I know it was your voice in my head that told me to drink from that bitch in the first place.”</p><p>“I knew you could, and I knew that you would,” Myrddin told the younger vampire. “You have been controlling rage and thirst since the very moment of your birth into this undead life that you now live. There is no mystical secret to taming it.”</p><p>Reid spoke now, changing the conversation direction to an entirely different question.</p><p>“What will happen without the Red Queen?”</p><p>“No more skals?” Cormac mused, watching as Myrddin shook his heavy head.</p><p>“Her wrath will be no more. She will taint the world no more,” he enlightened. “But there will always be vampires, so long as there are still some around to sire others. Even the skals.”</p><p>“Some Ekons cannot sire Ekons, only skals,” Reid quietly remembered. “As long as there are vampires, there will <em>always</em> be vampires.”</p><p>Both Cormac and Jonathan watched each other for a moment before glancing back at their Maker.</p><p>“I tire,” Myrddin mumbled. “My destiny has been fulfilled for the time being. I shall slumber until I awaken to a new one. Farewell, my children.”</p><p>His apparition seemed to fade slowly from the room as the heartbeat stilled and the walls washed back to their usual dingy color.</p><p>“I still hate him,” Cormac bluntly spoke, making the doctor snort inelegantly.</p><p>The redhead growled lowly at the other vampire in warning before shaking a manacled hand at him.</p><p>“Well, you heard father dearest. Fucking unchain me. Now.”</p><p>“Cormac, I—” Reid attempted to protest, but Cormac hissed furiously at him.</p><p>“No, I am in control,” the younger Ekon insisted. “I don’t even want to drink anymore.”</p><p>“It’s not just about that, Cormac,” Reid sighed. “The risk of your blood infecting others…”</p><p>“Is nothing,” Cormac snapped. “You heard the old vampire. That blood is neutralized inside of me.”</p><p>“But we don’t know that for sure,” Jonathan pressed. “And is that really a risk you’re willing to gamble with?”</p><p>Cormac sat up straight, feeling himself breathe in and then exhale slowly as he bit back the aching sensation that wormed its way up his throat. He exhaled again, this time yanking his right arm forward and popping the chain clean from the wall.</p><p>“I guess I am,” he grunted, using his now free hand bend the metal of his other shackle and releasing the arm.</p><p><em>Damn him,</em> Jonathan thought, rolling his eyes at how easily the younger Ekon seemed to kick the restraints from the wall and peel them from himself. <em>He truly is my problem now. I may as well have sired him myself.</em></p><p>“You will stay here,” Dr. Reid finally commanded.</p><p>“Like hell, I’d like to see you make me,” Cormac began, growling wildly, but stopping abruptly when the doctor waved him off.</p><p>“I mean in the city,” Reid clarified. “You will stay here, where Geoffrey, Arno, and I can keep a close watch on you—to ensure that you are still well.”</p><p>“How lucky,” the redhead sneered.</p><p>He began walking towards the large wooden door in the corner, eyeing up the doctor as he approached.</p><p>“Now, if you’re finished treating me like a child, kindly get out of my way. I have a very lovely brunet waiting for me out there.”</p><p>“Cormac,” Jonathan hissed again. “I’m serious. You need to be safe. We need to talk about control.”</p><p>“Oh my god, <em>mother</em>, we use protection,” Cormac groused, flashing his fangs despite himself in a lopsided grin. “Sometimes.”</p><p>Jonathan remained unamused, but he inwardly sighed in relief upon realizing that Cormac was still…well, Cormac. Wild, foolishly happy regardless of circumstances, and always ready to mock nearly anything.</p><p>“I’m talking about feeding, Cormac,” Reid finally said. “Feeding and then stopping mid feed.”</p><p>That actually stopped Cormac in his tracks.</p><p>He turned slowly and raised an eyebrow curiously.</p><p>“Alright, master,” he drawled. “Let’s hear it. What’s this big secret that you have that will help me not drain something dry once I start drinking from it.”</p><p>Jonathan found himself almost smirking this time. He moved closer to the Ekon at the door and pressed himself firmly against him, ignoring the loud protests coming from the younger vampire.</p><p>“I’m going to bite you,” he lowly growled, barely giving Cormac enough time to prepare himself before cold fangs met the flesh of his throat. Cormac stifled the surprised cry that threatened to break from him, putting hands on the older Ekon’s shoulders and trying to shove roughly at him. He could feel the blood being pulled from that wound in his throat, but he could also feel how perfectly aimed the piercing of those fangs actually were. Deep enough to draw blood, but not deep enough to tear vessels. Enough to drink from, but not enough to kill immediately from.</p><p>Reid had a few mouthfuls of blood before he eventually eased off of Cormac’s neck, staggering backwards and gasping heavily.</p><p>“Take it back,” he commanded, startling Cormac.</p><p>“What?” the redhead demanded.</p><p>“Bite me,” Reid plainly answered, this time throwing himself up against the Ekon whose hands were now trembling as they went around his waist without any protest this time.</p><p>And Cormac did.</p>
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